hankyoreh

cars crammed with products approach the Inter-Korean Transit Office (CIQ) at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. 43 of the remaining 50 South Koreans in the complex were given permission to leave

By Seok Jin-hwan, staff reporter

On Apr. 29, the day that the last South Korean workers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex were expected to leave, Park Geun-hye criticized North Korea. “The North is such an unpredictable place,” she said. “If they do not act like a responsible member of the international community, I don’t think they will be able to achieve economic development, or anything else for that matter.”

This was how Park responded to US Congressman Steve Chabot during a meeting with Chabot and others who accompanied him to South Korea. Chabot, chairman for the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, had said that he completely supports the South Korean position in regard to the situation at Kaesong.

“If firms are to invest and do business, agreements must be kept faithfully, and all parties must be free from worry at all times,” Park continued. “A situation where everything can fall to pieces in a single day is not a situation where South Korea, or any other country, can make investments.”

“Yesterday, the people of South Korea and the world watched as the workers at Kaesong left the complex, having crammed what they could fit into their cars and leaving the rest behind,” Park said. “How could something like this happen?”

At a meeting of senior Blue House secretaries that Park chaired earlier, she had said, “Now, the government must do its best to provide genuine support to the related companies and workers so that they do not lose hope.”

On Apr. 29, 43 of the 50 workers who had stayed in Kaesong returned to South Korea in a convoy of vehicles. The group included Hong Yang-ho, chairman of the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee (KIDMAC), along with about fifty maintenance workers from KT, the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).

While the timing of their withdrawal had originally been scheduled for 5 pm, they returned later than planned because of a delay in receiving traffic permission from North Korea. 7 workers stayed behind to deal with an issue related to unpaid wages.

In North Korea, the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper ran an article titled “Ludicrous Behavior: The Fools Are Poking Themselves in the Eye” in the Apr. 29 edition. The article criticized the South Korean decision to bring home all of the remaining workers from the Kaesong Complex as “shameless and foolish.” “If the South keeps trying to make the situation worse, we will take final and decisive action,” the article said.

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