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The Kaesong Industrial Complex in May 2019. (Yonhap News)

The Kaesong Businessmen Emergency Committee, under co-chair Chung Ki-seop, announced on Aug. 12 that it had approved a motion to provide food and disease prevention items to North Korean workers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex and their family members who are currently suffering amid recent flooding and a full-scale lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Flooding has been reported due to heavy rains in places such as North Hwanghae Province, which is near the city of Kaesong, and it pains us to think of the suffering that is being experienced by the North Korean workers who worked with us for over a decade at the Kaesong Complex and their family members due to the full-scale lockdown in Kaesong in connection with the coronavirus,” the committee’s statement said.

“While most of the companies do not have much in the way of means with the complex having been closed for nearly five years, we are providing support in the hopes of being of some small help to our workers, who are like family to us,” it explained.

“We hope that this disaster can be overcome quickly, and that we can meet again when the Kaesong Complex is reopened,” it continued.

The committee went on to say, “We hope the North Korean government will generously accept our minor but genuine intentions as a humanitarian gesture, and we hope the South Korean government will hold discussions with the North so that our aims can bear fruit in light of the current situation with the barring of all civilian contact.”

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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