North Korea's recent threat to shut down the Kaesong Industrial Complex is ratcheting up tensions and making it difficult to maintain the crucial, cooperative link between the two Koreas, South Korea's unification minister said Tuesday.
Ryoo Kihl-jae said in an informal meeting with reporters, that both South and North Korea have done their part to steadily build up the complex over the past 10 years.
"Having maintained it for so long, the proper next step should be to worry about how best to expand and stabilize the complex," the official said. He stressed that threats made by Pyongyang over the weekend to close Kaesong are certainly not the correct path to take at this juncture.
The communist country, citing the ongoing annual joint South Korean-U.S. military exercises, warned it could close the complex that is home to 123 South Korean factories.
He added that while Seoul will do its part to improve conditions at the Kaesong complex located just north of the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, Pyongyang too must do its share and refrain from ratcheting up tensions.
The policymaker then defined the complex that is considered the crowning achievement of the 2000 inter-Korean summit as a sort of "priming water" used in pumps. He pointed out that retaining the priming water is vital for expanded exchange down the road.
Ryoo then said that the incumbent Park Geun-hye administration's North Korean policy is based on putting things into practice and not making promises it cannot keep.
He said that Seoul wants to push forward support for infants and small children, the socially disadvantaged and try to push for the reunion of separated families, if such measures do not collide with sanctions being implemented by the international community. (Yonhap News)
