S. Korea to provide emergency funds to Gaeseong firms

The government and the ruling party agreed Monday to provide emergency funds to South Korean businesses suffering from the suspension of a joint industrial complex in North Korea, officials said.

The nine-year-old industrial park in the North's border city of Gaeseong ground to a halt early last month when the communist country withdrew its 53,000 workers from the complex in protest of U.S.-involved military drills in the South.

Seoul responded by pulling its own workers and managers from the 123 South Korean firms operating at the complex. Only seven South Koreans currently remain at the park to settle overdue wages and other outstanding issues with the North.

Under South Korean law, the government can draw on the inter-Korean cooperation fund or the small- and medium-sized business promotion fund to support firms at the complex in the event that entry to the park is banned or production is halted for more than a month.

During a meeting Wednesday, the government and the ruling Saenuri Party agreed to offer emergency loans to the Gaeseong firms using both funds and an extra 100 billion won ($90.54 million) they have asked to be added to the government's supplementary budget bill, the officials said.

The government's proposal for a 17.3 trillion won extra budget has yet to be approved by the National Assembly.

(Yonhap News)