‘N. Korea arbitrarily resumes Kaesong Industrial Complex,’ RFA reports

North Korea has brought equipment installed by South Korean businesses in the Kaesong Industrial Complex back into operation arbitrarily to produce school uniforms and clothes for the domestic market according to Radio Free Asia. The South Korean Unification Ministry made it clear that any unilateral infringement of South Korean citizens’ property rights obviously goes against relevant inter-Korean agreements, for which it has zero tolerance.

“Early next week, I returned to the region accompanied by those at a government agency in charge of clothes manufacturing with finished goods of summer school uniforms made from the Kaesong Industrial Complex transported in containers,” an official of the North Hwanghae Province was quoted as saying on Wednesday (local time). “Since March, South Korean businesses have been running in Kaesong after the central government permitted the resumption of equipment used to sew and cut out clothes.”

An official at the Unification Ministry said on Wednesday that the government inquired of the North about the movement of unidentified vehicles in the Kaesong complex.


Ji-Sun Choi aurinko@donga.com