개성공단 입주기업들은 12일 완제품과 원•부자 재를 갖고 나오기 위해 개성공단을 방문했다.
물자반출 첫날인 이날에는 전기전자•기계금속•화학업종 45개사 관계자 130명을 포함해 총 174명이 100여 대의 물류 차량을 타고 방북했다. 방북 인원은 물류기사와 보수인력 등을 포함해 업체당 3명으로 제한됐다.
이들은 오전 9시부터 공단에 들어가 오후 5시께 차량에 완제품과 원부자재를 싣 고 나왔다.
기업들은 그동안 출입이 통제돼 납품하지 못한 완제품과 습기가 많은 공단에서 손상될 수 있는 전자부품 등 원•부자재를 가져 나왔다.
공단에서는 업체들이 요청한 북한 직원들이 나와 물자를 차량에 옮기는 작업을 도와줬다. 그러나 북한 측은 기업인들이 수리•정비를 위해 설비를 실어 내는 것에는 부정적인 입장을 보였다.
유병기 비케이전자 대표는 "북한 근로자들이 부품을 포장하고 싣는 것까지 도와 줘 순조롭게 가지고 나올 수 있었다"면서 "하지만 우리가 기름칠하려고 일부 설비를 가져가려 하자 설비는 다음에 얘기하자며 난색을 표했다"고 전했다.
설비 반출이 막히자 일부 업체는 다음날 물자를 실어 내는 대신 정비인력을 보내 기계•설비를 정비할 계획인 것으로 알려졌다.
이날 방북한 전기전자•기계금속•화학업종은 13일 하루 더 공단을 방문하고 그 다음에는 섬유•신발•기타업종이 15∼16일, 아파트형 공장과 영업기업 등이 17∼18 일 들어갈 예정이다.
시간이 더 필요한 업체들은 19∼20일 추가로 방북을 신청할 수 있다. 업체들은 짧은 기간에 한정된 인력만으로 많은 물자를 운반할 수 없어 고민하고 있는 것으로 전해졌다.
이재철 제시콤 대표이사는 "이틀 만에 물자를 반출하려니 일정이 너무 촉박하다"면서 "남북대화가 어떤 방향으로 흐를지 알 수 없는 상황에서 정부가 하라고 할 때 최대한 갖고 나오는 것이 좋지 않겠느냐"라고 말했다.
<관련 영문 기사>
South Korean staff bring goods from suspended Gaeseong plants
More than 170 South Korean factory managers crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea to bring home goods and raw materials from a currently suspended jointly run industrial park in the North, officials said Friday.
It marked the first time that the North has allowed South Koreans to retrieve finished goods and supplies since April when Pyongyang withdrew its 53,000 workers from the park in anger over joint annual military exercises between South Korea and the United States.
South Korea quickly responded by pulling all of its workers from their factories in the North’s western border city of Gaeseong.
However, tensions have eased in recent days as the two Koreas agreed to reopen the park that had been billed as the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
On Wednesday, the two sides failed to produce a deal on detailed measures to reopen the park, though they are set to meet again on Monday to try to resolve differences, according to South Korean officials.
A total of 174 South Koreans arrived in the park Friday morning to bring home goods and raw materials. They crossed back into the South in the afternoon.
“We are short on time as we have to retrieve goods in just two days,” said Lee Jae-cheol, CEO of JC Com Co., a maker of optical communication devices and components, and one of the 123 South Korean companies with factories in Gaeseong.
The development illustrated the willingness of South Korean factory managers to retrieve finished products and raw materials as they are unsure the two Koreas will work out the terms of reopening the park.
South Korea has called on North Korea to put forward strong safeguards against another unilateral shutdown of the park, while the North called for its immediate opening.
Last week, some factory managers called on the two Koreas for help to relocate their equipment to either South Korea or unspecified foreign countries, noting they could survive and keep business deals with buyers only if they relocate their equipment.
The factory park, an achievement of the first-ever inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in 2000, combines South Korea’s capital and technology with the North’s cheap labor.
South Korean companies in Gaeseong produce clothes, utensils, watches and other goods. The project serves as a key legitimate cash cow for the impoverished communist country.
On Thursday North Korea retracted its proposal to hold talks with South Korea on restarting a family reunion program, after separate discussions on reopening a joint industrial estate faltered.
The North’s sudden move came a day after the two Koreas agreed in principle to hold talks on reunions for hundreds of thousands of families separated since the 1950-53 war.
Pyongyang had proposed that a Red Cross meeting on restarting a temporary family reunion program be held on July 19. It also suggested talks on July 17 about restarting tours by southerners to the Mount Geumgang resort.
The South said it was premature to discuss the Geumgang tours while the Kaesong talks are still going on.
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae told a forum Thursday that progress at talks on the estate could help resolve a standoff over the suspended tours.
The Mount Geumgang resort opened in 1998 and once earned the North tens of millions of dollars a year. But Seoul suspended tours by its citizens after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean housewife there in 2008.
The recent inter-Korean talks, even though fruitless so far, were a contrast to months of cross-border friction and threats of war by Pyongyang, after its February nuclear test attracted tougher U.N. sanctions.
From news reports
