hankyoreh

"Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea will make a significant contribution to settling South-North peace by establishing an inter-Korean economic community. We need to make efforts to facilitate it."

Rep. Hong Joon-pyo of the main opposition Grand National Party, chairman of the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee, on April 13 visited the joint Korean Gaeseong (Kaesong) complex, located just north of the border separating the two countries. He led a group of committee members, including Ahn Hong-joon and other four lawmakers of the GNP and Dan Byung-ho of the minor Democratic Labor Party (DLP). It is a rare case that five members of the conservative opposition GNP visited Gaeseong at one time.

Rep. Hong had previously visited the North Korean industrial complex as a member of the National Assembly Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee in 2004, when construction of the complex began.

In a telephone interview with The Hankyoreh on April 15, Rep. Hong urged the South Korean government to strengthen its support for North Korea. "If the Gaeseong area becomes a South-North economic community through the prosperity of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, there will not be further heightened tension on the Korean peninsula. If the Gaeseong complex is expanded in the future, workers from all across North Korea will come to Gaeseong. In that case, it would be as if the reunification of the peninsula is nearly half accomplished," Hong said.

"The latest visit should contribute to accelerating changes in the GNP’s North Korea policy," he continued. "The committee will actively assist the establishment of a center for technological training within the complex, aimed at transferring technologies of the South to the North Korean laborers." Construction of this center is expected to be completed in October.

In relation to changes in the GNP’s basic policies toward North Korea, Rep. Hong mentioned, "The GNP has already accepted less of a hard-line policy toward the North through revising its party platform in January last year, but nonetheless a few hard-liners have raised their voices. Even if the GNP takes power [at the next presidential election], it will be against the spirit of the time to shift the current soft-line policies to hard-line ones."

Hong proposed the creation of a South-North economic community in the so-called "iron triangle" area that saw heavy fighting during the Korean War. The area includes Cheolwon and Hwacheon along the demarcation line between the two Koreas, Gaeseong to the west and Mt. Geumgang - now a foreigners’ tourist destination in North Korea - to the east.

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