hankyoreh

July 3. (by Lee Jeong-ah

By Kwon Oh-sung, staff reporter and Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer

Machine and electronics parts tenant companies that had been operating at the Kaesong Industrial Complex have announced plans to relocate their facilities.

Representatives from 46 tenant companies released a statement adopted at an emergency meeting on July 3 at the Korean Federation of Small and Medium Business (Kbiz) offices in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood. In it, they demanded that the North and South Korean governments “reach a decision on either closing [the complex] down or starting it up again within the next 10 days.”

If a decision is not reached, the statement said, the companies would “have no other choice but to relocate their Kaesong Complex equipment to other places in Korea and overseas.”

The ultimatum comes as the complex’s shutdown enters its 92nd day, with companies suffering serious damage to their client credibility and equipment amid the Korean peninsula’s rainy season.

Yu Dong-ok, president of Daehwa Fuel Pumps and co-chairman of the Emergency Countermeasures Committee for Normalization of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, explained the circumstances.

“The 90-day period for preventive maintenance has passed, and the equipment has been severely damaged by the damp monsoon conditions,” Yu said. “Companies have also lost a lot of buyers, and now their survival is at stake.”

Machinery and electronics companies tend to have more vulnerable equipment than other companies, as well as heavy demands from clients for a stable supply.

While their demand was that complex operations be normalized, the companies also asked the government to take necessary action for relocation if normalization was not possible.

Currently, authorities in Seoul are maintaining that all responsibility for the situation at the complex lies with North Korea, whose actions it regards as improper. The South Korean government had not offered any other measures for dealing with the shutdown.

“We certainly understand that South Korean companies are going through a lot of trouble right now, and we think it’s very unfortunate,” said an official with the Unification Ministry on condition of anonymity.

“We also think it would help solve the problem if North Korea came to the talks between authorities that were agreed upon before,” the official added.

As for the companies‘ demands for government action on the relocation, the official said the ministry “doesn’t have any plan for that at the moment, but will look at developing one after things have been examined closely.”

Meanwhile, at their July 3 meeting, the heads of all 123 tenant companies voted for a “national peace march” calling for normalization of the complex‘s operations. Participating groups plan to depart from Busan Station at 10am on July 4 and march all the way through Daegu, Daejeon, and Seoul for reaching the final destination of Imjingak in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Along the way, they plan to distribute printed materials calling for a resumption of operations at the complex.

Attendees at the meeting demanded that the South Korean government act responsibly.

“North Korea may be responsible for shutting it down, but it’s disappointing and infuriating to see South Korean government acting like, ‘We have no reason to rush,’” said Jeong Gi-seop, who heads the countermeasures committee‘s planning subcommittee.

Han Jae-gwon, the committee’s chairman, explained the precarious financial situation for complex businesses.

“The press is making it out as though tenant companies received hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, but the actual aid was 69.5 billion won (US$60.9 million), and even that was a loan,” Han said. “We need to have a special law enacted.”

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