With the two Koreas apart on restarting the joint industrial park in Gaeseong, concerns are deepening among the businesses grappling with snowballing debts, rusting facilities and a client exodus.
A third round of government-level negotiations again failed to yield results Tuesday. The two sides set the next meeting for Wednesday, but appear to have a long way to go before reaching a breakthrough.
Seoul demands the North’s guarantee against a future closure of the complex before any normalization, whereas Pyongyang calls for its reactivation with no preconditions.
While retrieving goods and materials from their plants in the border city, the businesspeople remain anxious about the protracting impasse and mounting losses.
“We’re tired of waiting,” said Ok Sung-suk, vice president of an association of the firms operating factories in Gaeseong.
“I’ve been saying the same thing like a recording playing over and over again, that we have to save these dying companies sandwiched between the two countries.”
Ok, who runs clothing manufacturer Nine Mode, said if the assembly lines were not back online by August, the firm would miss orders for the fall and winter seasons and thus have no revenue at least until next April. All the apparel companies face the same situation, he said.
Businesses have suffered collective losses of 1.05 trillion won ($940 million) since Pyongyang in early April barred South Koreans’ entry to the town and pulled out its 53,000 workers over U.N. sanctions and Seoul-Washington military exercises.
The tally was based on claims submitted to the Unification Ministry between May 1 and June 7 by the 123 enterprises that have plants there and their 111 affiliates.
The companies have so far shipped out more than 1,000 tons of products, raw and subsidiary materials and equipment since last Friday, the ministry said.
Most of them would still want to continue business in Gaeseong, the association said.
But the unprecedented shutdown has prompted many factory owners to raise the need for measures to avert another suspension of the complex with which to reassure their clients and themselves.
“We businessmen, too, cannot resume our factories without assurances. Who would give us work? Buyers are so uneasy about signing a contract with us,” a company representative told reporters last week in Gaeseong.
Another entrepreneur said his company has already “missed the right time” to put its equipment back on track and therefore it would take longer to return to usual even if the two Koreas agree to normalize the district now.
“I am angered by how we’ve reached the current situation ― it’s not our fault but we only trusted the government. They should’ve come up with safeguards long before,” he said, asking for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Deescalation of tension, coupled with the North’s recent use of refined words, is a relief for many. Despite their stark differences, the two Koreas appear to be striving for a breakthrough by swapping revised draft agreements during the Monday meeting.
Given the public and political pressure, they may agree to reopen the park first and formulate safeguards over the long term, some observers say.
“There’s no answer other than swift normalization,” Ok told The Korea Herald.
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
