GS may build gas station near Gaesong

Posted on : 2007-08-28 09:40 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Collaboration with N. Korean non-profit may result in another inter-Korean project

GS Caltex Corp. is considering building a gas station near the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea. Though nothing has yet been confirmed, permission to use the land has been granted to a North Korean non-profit and talks between the two companies have begun.

On Aug. 27, the public relations department of GS Caltex said, “Jiudau, a company specializing in inter-Korean economic cooperation projects, secured some 66,000-square-meters of land near the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. With that, Jiudau proposed to open a gas station on the 6,611-square-meter site and a memorandum of understanding was signed. We are reviewing the specifics of the plan.”

However, Kim Myeong-hwan, the senior vice president of GS Caltex, cautioned against reading too much into the prospect and said, “We just responded to the counterpart’s proposal.”

Jiudau, a non-profit organization, said that North Korea’s environmental protection authorities granted it permission to use the land in June after it had set up a separate division, known as “Badubatu.”

The location for the inter-Korean project is believed to be on a site south of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. If a gas station were to be set up there, only vehicles going in and out of the complex would be eligible to use it.

Jo Ho-yeol, an official at Jiudau, said, “We are considering building a training facility on the remaining land. Though we plan to submit a completed business proposal to get permission from both South and North Korea, no date has been set.”