By Chung Min-uck
South Korea Sunday told North Korea to accept a “final round of talks” over the Gaeseong Industrial Complex or face a grave consequence.
“The government will make a final proposal for talks with North Korea,” Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said, urging the North to give a ‘clear answer’ about whether it will accept Seoul’s request for safeguards on the Gaeseong complex.
Some say that Seoul may be considering giving up on the resumption of the Gaeseong complex altogether.
“If not, the government has no other choice but to make a grave decision because companies operating in Gaeseong are suffering mental and material losses.”
The two sides have held six rounds of negotiations this month but the North refused to accept what the South called “safeguards” aimed at preventing the North from taking steps to close the industrial park, the flagship of inter-Korean economic endeavor.
It has been closed since the North pulled out North Korean workers from the complex.
The minister didn’t elaborate on details about what he meant by grave consequences but observers say that Seoul is apparently considering ditching the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC), the last-remaining symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement.
Seoul will make an official offer to Pyongyang today via the liaison channel at the truce village of Panmunjom, according to the ministry.
The minister also said that Seoul will approve humanitarian aid from five civic organizations to be sent to North Korea and support projects for infants there under UNICEF, citing the U.N. Children’s Fund. The move is understood as a conciliatory gesture to induce the North to actively engage in the envisioned talks.
Despite a principle of separating political issues with humanitarian need, the Park Geun-hye administration only approved one civic group, the Eugene Bell Foundation, to provide an aid package to North Korea.
Seoul-Pyongyang talks aimed at reopening operations at the GIC broke down last week after the two sides failed to narrow differences over how to prevent future closure of the complex.
Seoul asked for the North to guarantee that it won’t unilaterally pull out its workers or block South Korean businessmen from entering the zone, calling on the communist country to accept responsibility for the current situation.
The North countered that it cannot take sole responsibility for the Gaeseong suspension and that operations must begin immediately. It also said that the South must promise not to provoke the North politically or through engaging in hostile military action for it to guarantee normalization of the complex.
The current closure of the complex was triggered by the North ordering all of its 53,000 laborers not to report to work on April 9 citing the South’s military provocation represented by joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.
The move caused up to 1.05 trillion won ($ 944 million) in damages to the 123 South Korean companies that have factories in the industrial zone.
The special business zone that first started manufacturing products in late 2004 was created as a result of a historic South-North summit meeting held in June 2000.