The Unification Ministry is at odds with companies running plants in Gaeseong after allegations that it rejected Pyongyang’s offer to allow their access to the suspended industrial park to retrieve their goods.
A total of 243 employees from 103 businesses submitted a request to cross the border on Thursday to ship out raw and subsidiary materials and finished products left there since their own withdrawal in late April.
Democratic Party lawmaker Hong Ihk-pyo said Wednesday that North Korea had expressed its willingness to accept their entry but the ministry dismissed the offer.
He claimed to have confirmed with Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae during their meeting earlier in the day that the communist neighbor on Monday requested the names of the upcoming visitors and their plans be sent via email to the China-based National Economic Cooperation Federation in charge of cross-border economic affairs.
“We asked the minister to verify the claim and he admitted the truth and answered that he did not accept North Korea’s offer,” Hong told reporters at the National Assembly.
“The Unification Ministry’s position is that it cannot take a non-governmental proposal. I doubt whether the government truly has the willingness to talk to North Korea.”
The ministry, however, denied the existence of such an offer from the North.
“The minister told Hong and other lawmakers that rumor had it so and he will check it out, not that he admitted he had received or accepted such a suggestion,” a senior ministry official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Hong’s assertion appeared to be the latest in a series of what the ministry called Pyongyang’s attempts to spilt public opinion and stir ideological confrontation here by trying to deal directly with the companies while rejecting governmental calls for talks.
The ministry has been stressing the government’s first and foremost role in resolving the dispute, urging the regime to accept its dialogue offer to reactivate the joint factory complex.
Last week, Pyongyang repeatedly faxed documents to the firms directly, rebuffing Seoul’s third overture and claiming to have already informed the ministry of detailed plans for the withdrawal of complete goods and raw and subsidiary materials, which the agency denied.
“As North Korea continues to mention the normalization of the complex while not responding to our proposal for government-level dialogue, we cannot but question North Korea’s genuineness,” ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk told reporters on Tuesday.
“It is a huge misjudgment if North Korea thinks it can gain something by sending faxes to companies individually and inducing a conflict between the government and the businesses.”
With the blame game dragging out, critics voiced concerns that such a rigid attitude could lead to a virtual closure of the joint factory complex as happened with the long-suspended tours to Mount Geumgang.
The program was halted in July 2008, less than a decade after its launch by Hyundai Asan Corp., when a South Korean tourist was shot to death by a North Korean soldier.
In an effort to resume the signature inter-Korean project, Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun traveled to the North one year later and secured a guarantee of tourist safety and “all accommodations necessary for the tour” from then-leader Kim Jong-il.
But the Seoul government wrote off the agreement as “non-governmental,” demanding Pyongyang assure of its promise once again to the “responsible authorities.”
On Monday, state media reported that the North has begun a new tour program for the Chinese with a Singaporean cruise ship adopted in February.
“If the current situation continues, the Gaeseong complex will inevitably take the path to a complete shutdown just like the Mount Geumgang project,” Hong said.
“The Unification Ministry should take practical steps to prevent further corporate losses rather than insist on government-level talks.”
Han Jung-hee, president of clothing and shoemaker Hans Co., said recent pan-government measures to support firms with a Gaeseong factory have too much red tape compared with their effectiveness.
“It will be more realistic for the government to pore over how to pull out goods before Gaeseong comes to a full closure instead of playing on words with North Korea,” he told a meeting of the companies on Wednesday in Daejeon.
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
