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North Korean workers get back to work at a factory in the Kaesong Industrial Complex

By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer

South and North Korean workers arrived at the Kaesong Industrial Complex on Sept. 16, marking its first day of operation since it was shut down 166 days ago in April.

A total of 821 South Korean workers arrived, with around 400 of them staying overnight at the complex to speed along the preparations to restart the factories.

But it was already too late for textile and sewing factories to fill their fall orders, and without orders for the winter, the rate of operation is expected to be low for the time being. As of Sept. 16, 50-60% of the company’s 123 tenant companies had started again.

By 8 am, the Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine (CIQ) complex for the Gyeongui railroad line at Paju, Gyeonggi Province was packed with workers. Large trucks carrying raw and subsidiary materials stood in long lines. The first crossing of the North Korean border took place at 8:30 am, with eight waves of 556 vehicles carrying 821 workers over. In accordance with the two sides’ agreement on an improved permanent transit system, there were eleven crossovers from the South Korean side to Kaesong, and ten back from Kaesong to the South.

The North Korean side seemed eager to get started again, with large numbers of workers turning out. South Korean businessmen said they met a “hearty welcome” and the North Koreans were “excited even to be doing factory work.”

Choi Deok-ju, president of the clothing company Oryun, said the atmosphere was “even better” than before the shutdown.

“The North Korean workers went out of their way to be friendly and work hard,” he said.

The Ministry of Unification estimated the number of North Koreans working that day at around 35,000, or about two-thirds the original number of 53,000.

“Most of our 300 North Korean workers came to work,” said the president of one textile company.

“But it’s going to take at least one or two months to rebuild our relationships with our client base. We don’t really need a lot of workers right now because we’re just producing bits and pieces,” the company president continued. “We’ve got a lot of mountains to climb before it gets back to anything resembling normal.”

Park Rae-yul, 58, who manages a factory for Pyeonghwa Shoes, described a hectic situation there.

“We’re preoccupied here because it’s already too late to fill orders for the fall,” he said. “All 450 of the North Korean workers are set to show up. I spent last week visiting the complex and getting ready to restart, but everything’s finished now.”

Park Hoon-min, 28, of the LED company DSE, said it was bringing raw materials in by 11-ton truck.

“We’re relaxing a bit more now because it looks like we’ll be putting out of a lot of product,” he said.

Different companies had different timelines for resuming operations, and at different levels of activity. Some electronics and metalworking companies, which use a lot of precision equipment, are reportedly unable to start right away because of corrosion to their machinery.

Other businesses involved in inter-Korean economic cooperation projects outside the complex are feeling mixed emotions about the reopening. Companies at the Mt. Keumgang resort and investors in toll processing co-efforts with North Korea have had their business shut down for three to five years under the so-called “May 24 measures” taken by the South Korean government after the 2010 sinking of the ROKS Cheonan.

Representatives of the Emergency Committee for Businesses in Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation handed out roses to tenant company employees visiting North Korea at the south end of the Unification Bridge on Sept. 16 to congratulate them on the reopening. The committee is made up of members of around 1000 companies involved in inter-Korean exchange, not including the Kaesong Complex tenant companies.

“We congratulate them, but the rose also represents our state of mind - the red color burns away with the coming Chuseok holiday,” said the committee’s chairman, Yu Dong-ho. Yu operates a gas station on the other side of the Kaesong management committee’s office. His gas station is still not allowed to operate due to the May 24 Measures.

“Our company is right across the road from the Kaesong Complex,” he continued. “Does it make any sense that it’s OK for companies within the complex to run, but it’s not all right for other companies in the Kaesong area?”

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