Gov't launches task force on Gaeseong firms

South Korea set up a task force Monday to support companies hit by the suspension of a joint inter-Korean industrial park in the North Korean border town of Gaeseong, officials here said.

The move follows Seoul's decision on Friday to pull its workers from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex over Pyongyang's rejection of an offer for dialogue. Out of a total of 175 South Koreans, 125 returned home the following day along with one Chinese national who was there with them. The remaining 50 South Korean workers plan to return home later today.

The complex, which first started production in late 2004, effectively halted operations on April 9 after the communist country withdrew all of its laborers citing South Korean provocations.

"The task force plans to assess damages suffered by the firms with factories at Gaeseong and to devise comprehensive and practical supportive measures," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement.

The joint government team involves relevant agencies including the PMO, unification, finance and home affairs ministries as well as the Small and Medium Business Administration, it added.

During the first meeting on Monday, the government discussed ways to help the firms, including offering them loans from the inter-Korean cooperation fund. It also vowed swift measures to minimize the firms' losses, according to the officials.

In a bid to stave off the firms' losses, Seoul offered to hold talks with the North on April 11, but the North rejected the proposal three days later. On Friday, after the North again rejected a similar call that morning, the South ordered its firms to withdraw from the park.

Following the withdrawal, the businesses have asked the government to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of their facilities in the North, to continue to engage the communist nation in talks for the reopening of the Gaeseong complex and to grant permission for representatives from the complex to visit the North on Tuesday for a meeting with North Korean officials. (Yonhap News)