hankyoreh

The Kaesong Industrial Complex

A recent survey showed that seven out of 10 South Koreans believe that the government’s closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex did not help improve inter-Korean relations. Furthermore, 80% of respondents believed that dialogue with North Korea is necessary for the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue. With the one-year anniversary of the South Korean government’s shutdown of the Kaesong Complex coming up on Feb. 10, the National Assembly commissioned Gallup Korea to carry out a poll of 1,030 adults on Jan. 18-19 (±3.1% margin of error and 95% confidence level).

According to the results of the survey, which were released on Feb. 2, to the question, “How much do you believe the measure to close the Kaesong industrial complex helped improve relations between North and South Korea?” 75.9% of participants responded, “It was not helpful,” and a mere 15.7% responded, “It was helpful.” Furthermore, 54.6% responded that “The Kaesong Industrial Complex should be reopened,” and 34.7% responded that “The Kaeseong Industrial Complex should remain closed.”

65.7% were negative about the Park Geun-hye administration’s North Korea policy, and answered that the administration had done “badly.” 23.2% answered that the administration had done “well.” Respondents generally agreed that dialogue between North and South Korea was necessary. When asked about policies towards North Korea going forward, while just 13.9% responded that “we must continue sanctions without dialogue,” 55.9% responded that “sanctions must be accompanied by dialogue” and 24.7% responded that “we must shift the overall focus to dialogue.” Effectively, 80.6% of respondents had expressed the opinion that dialogue was necessary. On the idea that the next incoming administration should host a summit for the restoration of relations with North Korea, an overwhelming 70.6% participants responded that they agreed, while 17.7% disagreed.

In his keynote address for a seminar hosted by the National Assembly Research Service one year after the Kaesong Complex closure and how it affects inter-Korean relations, Chung Sye-kyun, speaker of the National Assembly, alluded to this study. He said, “We can only begin to find a solution to the North Korean nuclear problem when dialogue and negotiations go hand in hand.”

“The primary responsibility for deteriorating North-South relations is with North Korea, which has threatened the peace and broken international regulations, but no matter how difficult the situation we must not cut off dialogue with the North entirely,” said Chung. “In this sense, the simplistic thinking and policies of our current administration, which has chosen to discontinue dialogue entirely, is not entirely free of accountability.”

By Ha Eo-young, staff reporter

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