North Korea has threatened to dispose of South Korean companies' assets on its soil outside Mount Kumgang, too, and demanded compensation for economic losses incurred by Seoul's halting of all cross-border trade following the North's deadly attack last year, sources said Friday.
The North's latest warnings against the South Korean companies operating in its inland areas came after it expelled South Korean workers from Mount Kumgang and seized all South Korean assets in the eastern coastal areas in anger over the suspension of a joint tour program.
The South Korean government announced in May last year a raft of punitive measures against Pyongyang, including the suspension of all inter-Korean trade after 46 of its sailors died in the March 2010 sinking of the warship Cheonan, blamed on Pyongyang.
"North Korean officials warned that they would seize our assets there and find new business partners, as the suspension of the inter-Korean businesses inflicted huge damage," an official of a South Korean company that runs a business in the North told Yonhap News Agency, requesting anonymity.
The two Koreas jointly ran the tour program at the scenic resort for a decade before Seoul halted it in the wake of the 2008 shooting death of a tourist by a North Korean soldier inside the resort.
"The North Koreans said they will wait and see any responses from or measures by the South by the end of this year," he said.
South Korea's CS Global, which runs a sand collection business near the North's border city of Kaesong, also said the North's National Economic Cooperation Federation called on it to pay compensation for economic losses from Seoul's measure.
"The North Koreans demanded reparations insisting that South Korea unilaterally put a halt to inter-Korean business. They also refused to accept (responsibility for) the Cheonan warship incident," a CS Global official said.
An official at the Unification Ministry said, "We've learned that Pyongyang recently made such claims to several South Korean companies operating there. ... The ministry will discuss the matter in close cooperation with the companies." (Yonhap)
1 | Teens feel peer pressure to buy luxury goods endorsed by K-pop stars |
