hankyoreh

In 2006, 18 groups of foreigners, including journalists, paid a visit to the Gaesong Industrial Complex just north of the border between the two Koreas. For the first five months of last year, six groups visited the joint Korean industrial park. But in June of last year alone, as many as seven teams, one including the U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow, paid a visit. Then, for the second half of last year, Gaesong received just five groups of foreign visitors due to North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests. However, with the February 13 breakthrough in the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue, foreigners have started to visit Gaeseong again - seven groups have already visited the city this year.

Many officials working in the complex say that Thomas Byrne, Vice President and Senior Analyst in the Sovereign Risk Unit at Moody’s investment service, and former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry were among the most memorable guests. Byrne visited Gaeseong on February 9, and Perry visited on February 22.

Byrne called the Gaeseong project representative of the hopeful future of the South and North, and admitted that the industrial complex has been playing a role in reducing the ‘North Korea risk’ factor that has always affected the credit rating of South Korea.

Unexpectedly - particularly given his former career - Perry encouraged officials from North Korea on their efforts at Gaeseong, calling them pioneers.

Republicans have repeatedly questioned the wages paid to North Korean workers, low when compared to worldwide averages but high for North Korea, as well as whether some of the money was going to Pyongyang and could be used on weapons or nuclear programs. However, a group of U.S. Democrats, after visiting the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in December last year, said that the U.S. should reevaluate the project, and that they would have to support the project in the long term.

An official of the Ministry of Unification who has accompanied many foreign visitors to the complex, said, "I explain to visitors that through building the complex, we removed the minefields left in place 50 years after the division of the Korean Peninsula in order to lay the groundwork for reconciliation, and that swords have been beaten into ploughshares through the existence of the industrial park, and many foreigners nod in affirmation after this explanation."

As the Gaeseong Industrial Complex is becoming more widely known overseas, foreign visitors reportedly have changed their line of questioning. At first they asked questions such as, "How can North Korean workers live with such low wages?" or "Why are their wages so much lower than those of their Southern counterparts?" Now they are asking, "What role can Gaeseong Industrial Complex play for North Korea to take part in the international community?" or, "How is the complex making a contribution for the peace of the Korean peninsula?" sources at Gaeseong reported. Perry, in fact, praised the Gaeseong project as a business venture that forecasts the future of the peninsula, the sources said.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]