Bizmen again seek gov't approval to visit joint factory park

A group of South Korean businessmen on Thursday said they plan to ask the government again to approve their plan to visit the now-shuttered joint industrial park in North Korea.

Businessmen said there is a pressing need to visit North Korea to check their facilities at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, which was shut down six months ago.

Previously, the group made two similar requests to Seoul's unification ministry, but the government rejected them, saying the move is not proper as the international community is moving to implement sanctions against the North over its nuclear and missile provocations.

"It is not appropriate that they are seeking to visit the factory zone, given the current situation on the divided peninsula," a ministry official said.

On Feb. 10, Seoul shut down the industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong, the last symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation, in response to North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January and launch of a long-range rocket in the following month.

In retaliation, North Korea kicked out all South Koreans at the complex and froze their assets there while designating the zone a military-controlled area.

Since the opening in 2004, a total of 124 South Korean firms had operated factories at the complex, some 50 kilometers northwest of Seoul, employing more than 54,000 North Korean workers to produce labor-intensive goods, such as clothes and utensils.

The companies claimed that the shutdown has incurred more than 1.5 trillion won ($1.4 billion) in financial losses, saying that the government's financial support is not sufficient to cover their damage.

Seoul said it has provided 336.9 billion won, or 66 percent, of earmarked support funds totaling 500 billion won to the firms.

South Korean nationals need Seoul's approval, as well as the North's consent, for a trip to the communist nation. The two Koreas still remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap)