ROK and Inter-Korean relations
August 2013
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Dispatch From Seoul
by GREGORY ELICH
Seoul, South Korea.
Sixty years have passed since the end of the Korean War, and still the sides remain technically at war. The armistice that ended hostilities was meant to be a temporary measure leading to the signing of a peace treaty. Within three months of the armistice taking effect, a political conference was to have been held “to settle through negotiations the questions of the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea” and the “settlement of the Korean question.” That conference never took place, and a peace treaty remains no closer to attainment than it was sixty years ago.
Given the growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Korean activists regard the signing of a peace treaty as an urgent goal. Several events in Korea marked the July 27 anniversary of the armistice, beginning with the Great International Peace March that began on July 4 at Jeju Island, where a naval base is under construction. From there, marchers made their way north to Seoul.
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Seoul Suggests Mt. Kumgang Tour Talks in Early October
Seoul on Tuesday proposed to Pyongyang that the two Koreas discuss on Oct. 2 a possible resumption of package tours to Mt. Kumgang.
South Korea originally wanted the talks to take place earlier, on Sept. 25, but changed its mind because it worries that Pyongyang will try to use reunions of families separated by the Korean War, which are slated for the same week, as leverage in negotiations.
A Unification Ministry official said, "We concluded that it would be technically better to delay the Mt. Kumgang talks by about a week to avoid coinciding with the family reunions."
Pyongyang wanted the talks to take place in late August or early September, even before the family reunions.
Meanwhile, Seoul decided to send 56 Red Cross officials and tour operator Hyundai Asan staffers to check the facilities in Mt. Kumgang resort on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for the family reunions.
[Kumgangsan]
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Seoul asks Pyongyang to push back talks on Mt. Keumgang tourism
Posted on : Aug.28,2013 11:39 KST
Shin Yang-soo, vice-chairman of the Mt. Keumgang Business Association wipes his eyes after hearing the news of the South Korean government’s proposal to hold talks on resuming tourism at Mt. Keumgang at a later date, at the Association’s office in Seoul, Aug. 27. (News1)
Businesses operating in Mt. Keumgang resort desperately hoping for resumption after suspension of almost 2,000 days
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
“I have to wonder whether the government is really committed to resuming tourism at Mt. Keumgang.”
These were the comments of a member of the Mt. Keumgang Business Association on Aug. 27 over Seoul’s decision to push the date for working-level talks on the resort’s reopening back once again to Oct. 2. A study by the association found that over 50% of the 49 companies at the tourism complex in North Korea had gone under in the past five years. The remaining two dozen have long been stretched perilously thin, mortgaged to the hilt and facing suspended operations.
The sense of desperation is far deeper than with Kaesong Industrial Complex tenant companies, the member said on condition of anonymity.
“I can’t understand this difference between the Korean Peninsula’s east (Mt. Keumgang) and west (Kaesong) in North Korea policy,” he added. “Kaesong reopened after 133 days, but it‘s going on 2,000 days since Mt. Keumgang shut down. I don’t see why they keep putting it off.”
[Kumgangsan]
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South and North agree to hold family reunions in late September
Posted on : Aug.24,2013 12:58 KST
Leader of the South Korean delegation to the Aug. 23 working level talks on reunions of divided families Lee Duk-haeng (right) exchanges copies of the signed agreement with Park Yong-il, leader of the North Korean delegation, at the Peace House on the South Korean side of Panmunjeom Peace Village in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. (provided by the Ministry of Unification)
The two sides still have plenty to work out with continued reunions and possibly resuming tourism at Mt. Keumgang
By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer
One hundred people each from South and North Korea will meet at Mt. Keumkang between Sept. 25 and 30 this year for family reunions.
Video reunions are also scheduled for 40 families on each side for Oct. 22 and 23, with another reunion event to take place in the month of November.
The 4-clause agreement was announced at 9 pm on Aug. 23 after 11 hours of discussions between South and North Korea. The Red Cross working-level talks started at 10 am at the Peace House on the South Korean side of Panmunjeom.
The original goal was to reach an agreement on in-person and real-time video reunions around next month’s Chuseok holiday, one of the major events in the Korean calendar. But the proceedings dragged on late into the night as the two sides were unable to bridge their differences on the scale of the reunions and whether to allow South Korean abductees and POWs currently being held in North Korea.
[Reunions]
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British journalist warns against rail privatization in South Korea
Posted on : Aug.28,2013 11:41 KSTModified on : Aug.28,2013 11:41 KST
Christian Wolmar says since Britain privatized its system, prices have gone up, while safety and service have declined
By Noh Hyun-woong, staff reporter
With a head of gray hair on a frame measuring well over 1.85 meters tall, Christian Wolmar arrived at the Hankyoreh’s offices in Seoul’s Mapo district on Aug. 27 and responded to the greeting of “I’ll be your interviewer today” by grinning and holding out a business card with a photo of him on a bicycle. A transportation policy reporter for Britain’s The Independent newspaper in the early 1990s, he first rose to renown with his opposition to his country’s rail privatization push after the Conservative Party took power. He has published nearly a dozen books on railways, including “On the Wrong Line” and “Down the Tube.” Now he’s turning his attention to the privatization currently being pushed by the South Korean government. “They’re making the same mistake Britain did,” he said.
[Railways] [Privatisation]
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A New Day in Northeast Asia?
POLICY FORUM BY JAMES GOODBY AND MARKKU HEISKANEN
A rare and important agreement between the North and the South of Korea was reached on August 14. This should lead to the re-opening of the North-South experiment in economic cooperation just over the Demilitarized Zone at Kaesong, in North Korea. It consisted of a complex of factories owned and managed by South Korean firms and staffed by North Koreans. Last April, the North Korean government withdrew over fifty thousand North Korean workers from the Kaesong Industrial Zone to protest sanctions imposed after a third North Korean nuclear test. That move made by North Korea came close to closing down the complex once and for all.
[Kaesong]
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Candlelight Demonstrations Resume in South Korea
Less than six months into the new administration of Pres. Park Geun-hye, Korean citizens are back on the streets in massive candlelight vigils, in protest following the revelation that the Korean intelligence agency interfered with the last presidential election by disseminating negative comments about the opposition candidate (Moon Jae-in) using social media outlets, in a clear violation and abuse of the government's stated neutrality in election matters. There are even calls for the abolition of the intelligence agency, the successor to the infamous Korean C.I.A. which had a long history of abuses tied to being a crucial instrument of terror in aiding the dictatorial rule of Park Chung-hee (the father of Paek Geun-ye) from the 60s to the 80s.
[NIS]
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The Kaesong Opportunity
By Bradley O. Babson
23 August 2013
Some analysts, like Bruce Klingner writing in the Wall Street Journal on August 18, 2013[1] lament the recent agreement between the two Koreas to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), calling it a “trap,” wondering why the South Koreans would want to take this step given the opportunity to close the zone altogether, and claiming that KIC is an uneconomic, political liability for Seoul. Other skeptics are concerned that important details of how the agreement will be implemented have yet to be worked out and worry that the North Koreans will “game” the South into accepting arrangements that would not serve its longer-term interests.
My view is that the KIC agreement represents the first step of a careful effort by both countries to re-calibrate their relationship after 10 years of excessive largess from Seoul during the Sunshine Policy era and five years of excessive confrontation during the Lee Myung-bak administration.
[Kaesong]
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An Ecological Framework for Promoting Inter-Korean Cooperation and Nuclear Free Future: a DMZ Peace Park
An important element of the DPRK-ROK announcement of their agreement to reopen Kaesong Industrial Park* on August 14, 2013 [1] under new rules was a third party report that the DPRK would consider implementing a DMZ Peace Park should resumption of Kaesong pan out. [2] Previous approaches, official and informal, had been rebuffed by the DPRK since the mid-1990s when the notion of a “peace park” was first explored via UN channels in the mid-1990s. [3] However, given a new political context and President Park’s recently articulated “trustpolitik”, it is time to re-examine the concept. [4]
After two decades of careful preparation, it appears that a DMZ Peace Park might be an element of inter-Korean cooperation. We suggest that it is essential to embed the narrower concept of a DMZ-only peace park in a regional approach to creating a biodiversity corridor—partly because biodiversity conservation requires this networked approach; and partly because a six or seven (including Mongolia) approach is more likely to succeed over time than a solely inter-Korean approach.
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Thousands rally in Seoul over relations with North Korea
Published: Aug. 15, 2013 at 5:28 PM
SEOUL, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Thousands of people gathered in downtown Seoul on Thursday to call on the South Korean government to work on having better relations with North Korea.
Protesters rallied in front of Seoul Station and asked that the government resume all suspended reconciliation projects with North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Organizers said about 5,000 people showed up for the protest; police put the number at about 3,500.
The demonstrators later marched toward the City Hall plaza, causing severe traffic jams in the area.
Police dispersed the crowd by firing a water cannon at protesters.
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Korea to Buy 4 Aerial Refueling Tankers
The military will buy four aerial refueling tankers beginning in 2017. Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration says the bidding will open in February next year and it aims to select the contractor by October.
“After talking with related agencies, a budget will be determined and an official bid announced," a DAPA official said.
With mid-air refueling, the operational hours of Korea's combat jets will increase, allowing them to travel longer distances without touching the ground and carry more weapons.
[Military balance]
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South and North agree on Kaesong Complex normalization
Posted on : Aug.15,2013 14:36 KST
Kim Ki-woong (right) and Park Chol-su, heads of the South and North Korean delegations to the seventh round of talks on normalizing operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, exchange signed copies of the agreement reached in working-level talks, August 14. (photo pool)
The South Korean side takes internationalization of complex over insisting that the North take responsibility for closure
By Park Byong-su and Kim Kyu-won staff reporters
South and North Korea have reached an agreement to normalize operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex,133 days after the complex was shut down by North Korea. The South Korean government softened on its demands that North Korea take full responsibility for the closure, while North Korea accepted a number of key demands, including internationalization of the complex, measures on transit, communications, and customs, and the creation of a joint committee for the complex.
They agreed to hold some discussions to decide the specific day operations will resume.
The seventh round of working-level talks took place on Aug. 14 at the complex’s general support center, with Kim Ki-woong serving as head of the South Korean delegation. The North Korean delegation included the deputy director of the Central Special Zone Development Guidance Bureau.
[Kaesong]
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Full text of Park's [Liberation Day] address
This is the full text of President Park Geun-hye’s address on the 68th anniversary of the Liberation Day. ? ED.
The Great Journey of the Republic of Korea
Fellow citizens, Korean compatriots abroad, decorated patriots and veterans, and distinguished guests joining us here.
Today is a historic day marking the 68th anniversary of liberation and the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Korea.
I join all Koreans in celebrating this meaningful day. I pay profound tribute to our fallen patriotic forefathers who gave their all for the nation’s independence and other patriots who devoted themselves to the founding of the nation. My heartfelt gratitude also goes to all our patriots who fought for the nation’s independence and their families.
[Park Geun-hye]
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Park outduels young NK leader
By Kim Tae-gyu
Kim Jong-un
Under the rule of its young leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea first tried to tame President Park Geun-hye by carrying out a third nuclear test on Feb. 12, just two weeks before she took office.
However, as Park refused to compromise, it ratcheted up tensions with verbal assaults, threats of nuclear strikes and eventually closure of the joint inter-Korean industrial zone in Gaeseong.
[SK NK Negotiations]
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Navy Launches State-of-the-Art Submarine
The Navy launched its latest 1,800-ton submarine at Okpo shipyard in southeastern Korea on Tuesday. President Park Geun-hye christened the vessel Kim Jwa-jin, after an independence fighter against Japanese colonial rule.
President Park Geun-hye cuts the rope with an axe to launch the Navys new state-of-the-art submarine at Okpo Shipyard in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province on Tuesday. /Courtesy of the Navy President Park Geun-hye cuts the rope with an axe to launch the Navy's new state-of-the-art submarine at Okpo Shipyard in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province on Tuesday. /Courtesy of the Navy
Normally, first ladies christen new Navy vessels according to a tradition that dates back to King George III of England requiring women for the task.
The Kim Jwa-jin is capable of engaging 300 targets at the same time while under water.
[Military balance] [Seapower]
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2 Koreas agree to reopen Gaeseong park
By Chung Min-uck
South and North Koreas agreed Wednesday to reopen the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC).
The two sides reached a five-point agreement signed by Kim Ki-woong, Seoul’s chief delegate to the working-level talks and his North Korean counterpart Park Chol-su.
They adopted the agreement after day-long negotiations in the North’s border city of Gaeseong. The agreement came 133 days after the complex was shut down.
The accord includes the two Koreas jointly implementing safeguards to prevent another shutdown of factories there.
However, the two sides fell short of agreeing on a specific date when to reopen the GIC.
“Reopening will depend on how soon more than 120 impacted South Korean companies complete maintenance checkups on their facilities there,” a ministry official said.
[Kaesong]
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North and South Korea move closer to reopening joint factory park
KOREA POOL / HANDOUT/EPA - This handout photo shows Kim Ki-Woong (2-L) director-general, Inter-Korean District Support Directorate, and his North Korean counterpart Park Chul-Soo (R) signing an agreement after their meeting at the Kaeseong Industrial Complex in Kaeseong, North Korea, Aug. 14, 2013. North and South Korea have agreed to reopen a jointly operated industrial park that was closed in April.
By Chico Harlan
SEOUL — North and South Korea made significant progress Wednesday toward reopening their jointly operated border industrial park, a turning point — following weeks of fruitless talks — that South Korean President Park Geun-hye called a potential “new start” for relations between the neighbors.
After their latest round of talks, the two Koreas released a statement pledging “active” efforts to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex, which was blockaded and then shut down by the North four months ago during a period of high tensions.
The agreement is hardly conclusive, requiring further sit-downs and leaving the chance for pitfalls, analysts said. But it marked the clearest sign yet that the North and South, despite trading harsh threats in the spring, want to cooperate with one another in limited ways.
[Kaesong]
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Businessman relays positive message from NK on Kaesong and DMZ Peace Park
Posted on : Aug.12,2013 14:27 KST
Pyeonghwa Motors CEO Park Sang-kwon (right) greets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang at a Victory Day ceremony, July 30. Park is able to travel freely to North Korea because he holds US citizenship. (provided by the Ministry of Unification)
Pyeonghwa Motors CEO observes development of N. Korea’s tourist industry on recent visit
By Park Byong-su, staff reporter
Kim Yang-gon, director of North Korea’s United Front Department and the person in charge of dealing with the South, was quoted as saying, “If things go well with the Kaesong Complex, things will also go well with the DMZ park [referred to by South Korean President Park Geun-hye].”
After a visit to Pyongyang, Pyeonghwa Motors CEO Park Sang-kwon held a press conference on Aug. 9 where he told reporters what Kim had said during their meeting.
“When it comes down to it, the Kaesong Industrial Complex is in the DMZ, too. It is only if we actively work to make things go well at Kaesong that we can decide whether or not to make the park in the DMZ. At the moment, the Kaesong Complex is not operating, so what use is there to talk about the DMZ Park? If things go well with the Kaesong Complex, things will also go well with the DMZ Park,” Park quoted Kim as saying.
[Inter-Korean business]
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Rodong Sinmun Calls for Improving Relations with S. Korea through Dialogue
Pyongyang, August 12 (KCNA) -- The DPRK remains invariable in its stance to improve the relations with south Korea through dialogue and cooperation, not confrontation, and pave the path for peace and national prosperity, says Rodong Sinmun Monday in an article.
It continues:
It is required by the times to turn the inter-Korean ties of distrust and confrontation into those of trust and reconciliation.
The confrontation between the north and the south of Korea is a product of the policy of aggression pursued by foreign forces.
The history of the Korean nation's division tells a bitter lesson that such escalated inter-Korean confrontation brings the nation nothing but continued partition and horrible war disaster.
The DPRK has called for ending the tragedy of national division and achieving the north-south reconciliation and cooperation and has made every possible effort to do so.
The improved inter-Korean relations are a prerequisite to ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula and achieving uniform development and common prosperity of the nation.
What is urgent for improving these relations is to conduct brisk multi-faceted dialogue, contact, exchange and cooperation between the north and the south of Korea.
There should be visits, contacts, dialogues and cooperation among Koreans of all social standings in the north and the south and overseas along with authorities-level dialogue.
Only when the people from all walks of life, the driving force for national reunification movement, take an active part in the work to achieve the unity and reunification of the nation and pool their efforts, wisdom and energy, can the inter-Korean ties turn more dynamic and properly develop in line with the will and desire of all Koreans.
It is the only way of saving the inter-Korean ties from a collapse to respect and implement the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration, a programme for implementing it.
Both declarations serve as reunification programmes common to the nation which all Koreans should thoroughly uphold and implement.
These declarations comprehensively deal with principles and ways to solve the issues concerning national reunification independently by concerted efforts of the Koreans.
The Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK will as ever make sustained patient efforts to warm the relations with south Korea and achieve the historic cause of national reunification by concerted efforts of the Korean nation.
[Unification]
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Citizens come out nationwide to protest against NIS interference
Posted on : Aug.12,2013 14:25 KSTModified on : Aug.12,2013 14:29 KST
Citizens at a candlelight vigil in Seoul Plaza outside City Hall call on President Park Geun-hye to apologize for the recent political interference by the National Intelligence Service and for comprehensive reform of the NIS, August 10. (by Lee Jeong-woo, staff photographer)
How the protests go from here will depend on outcome of Aug. 14 National Assembly hearing
By Kim Hyo-sil and Choi Yu-bin, staff reporters
Even amid heavy monsoon rains and scorching heat, more than 100,000 candles (according to estimates by the organizers) remained lit.
Around 50,000 citizens (according to the organizers) took part in the 6th Pan-Citizen Candlelight Rally at Seoul Square in front of Seoul City Hall on the evening of Aug. 10. (The police estimated there were around 16,000 people in the rally.)
They began to gather around 3 pm, and two hours later the crowd had increased to around 20,000. When night fell, the plaza was so packed that there was no room to move around. Citizens who were unable to find a spot clambered up trees and pill ars in the area and watched the rally.
[NIS]
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11th-Hour Contact Puts Kaesong Talks Back on Track
North Korea on Wednesday emerged from a 10-day sulk to propose fresh talks to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex next Wednesday.
In a statement, the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland called for talks "without preconditions" and working together to deliver "good news to all Korean people on the occasion of Liberation Day."
South Korea agreed immediately. Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said, "We believe North Korea has taken a forward-looking measure."
[Kaesong]
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Seoul backpedaling on Kaesong ultimatum made to North Korea
Posted on : Aug.6,2013 11:52 KST
Pyongyang still hasn’t responded to Seoul’s offer for another round of working-level talks
By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter
The Ministry of Unification backpedaled on its Aug. 4 remarks about “reaching the limits of patience” with North Korea on the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
Speaking at a regular briefing on Aug. 4, Unification Ministry spokesperson Kim Hyung-suk explained that the “gist” of a spokesperson’s statement the day before had been to “once again urge North Korea to show a sincere change in attitude for the sake of normalizing operations at the Kaesong Complex in a forward-oriented way.”
The move could be intended to give North Korea more time to respond to a proposal eight days ago for a seventh round of working-level talks on the complex.
“The government is firm in its hopes of developing Kaesong into an internationally competitive complex,” Kim added.
[Kaesong]
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S.Korean Fashions Spread Through N.Korea
South Korean goods and pop culture are spreading across North Korea through black markets. Defectors say South Korean goods sold in North Korean markets range from DVDs and clothes to food to like vegetables, fruit, fish and meat.
"Many young North Koreans who come across South Korean goods on the black market prefer them to Chinese-made ones although they are pricier," one defector said. "It's especially difficult to find South Korean cosmetics and shampoo because the demand is so high."
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Final Closure of Kaesong Complex Draws Nearer
The government is apparently resigning itself to the permanent closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex after North Korea failed to respond to a proposal of what Seoul called "final talks."
Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk on Monday told reporters the government will wrap up a review early this week of whether to tap into the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to compensate manufacturers who lost their business in the complex.
[Kaesong]
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South Korean missile acquisition boosts strike capability
August 3rd, 2013
Author: Soon Ho Lee, University of Hull
South Korea has gained a strategic edge on its rivals with the purchase of air-to-surface standoff missiles from Europe.
But the deal followed South Korea’s failure to win Washington’s approval for its first-choice US-made capability, raising questions about why the United States rejected the deal.The ROK’s military procurement agency confirmed on 19 June 2013 that the TAURUS KEPD 350, produced by a joint venture between European groups MBDA and Saab, was selected as the Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Project partner. South Korea had been actively pursuing a new-generation air-to-surface standoff (long range) missile to equip the ROK Air Force’s F-15K Slam Eagle fighter jets. With the life expectancy of such missiles at about 10 years, the Air Force’s current capabilities, primarily purchased in 2002 and 2005, are nearing their end. South Korea initially tried to buy the Lockheed Martin AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) to increase its long-range strike capability. But because Washington was reluctant to sanction the deal, South Korea instead opted to partner with the Europeans.
[MTCR] [Missile] [Military balance]
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Seoul's Patience with N.Korea 'Running Out'
Seoul on Sunday said its patience with North Korea over a date for fresh talks about the Kaesong Industrial Complex is running out. North Korea has made no response to South Korea's proposal on July 29 for another round of talks about reopening the industrial park.
Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said, "If North Korea really believes the Kaesong industrial park is the touchstone of future inter-Korean relations, it should follow up with responsible words and action instead of silence."
[SK NK Negotiations][Kaesong]
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Seoul still urging Pyongyang to respond to offer of talks on Kaesong
Posted on : Aug.5,2013 15:35 KST
Park Chol-su (left) and Kim Ki-woong, heads of the North and South Korean delegations to working-level talks on the Kaesong Industrial Complex, look past each other as they shake hands at the end of the day’s meetings, July 25. (pool photo)
South still trying to get North to guarantee uninterrupted operations at the complex and compensation for companies
By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter
The South Korean government urged Pyongyang to respond to its recent offer for dialogue on the Kaesong Industrial Complex, noting the extent of the damage the ongoing shutdown has caused to the South Korean tenant businesses that had operated there as well as the South Korean government.
The message could be read as a warning in response to North Korea’s failure to respond for the past week to the proposal for a seventh round of working-level talks. This week could end up being a pivotal point in the complex’s fate.
Kim Hyung-suk, a spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Unification, issued a statement on Aug. 4 calling for Pyongyang to act responsibly. “It has been four months since operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex were halted by North Korea’s unilateral decision to shut off access and pull out its workers. If the North truly wishes to end the suffering of the tenant companies and workers, it needs to show its willingness to do so not through silence, but through responsible words and actions,” Kim said.[Kaesong]
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Gaeseong complex faces permanent closure
By Chung Min-uck
The Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) is heading toward permanently shutting down, with Pyongyang showing no signs of accepting Seoul’s proposed talks on reopening the joint complex.
The Ministry of Unification has finalized the administrative procedure to pay insurance worth 280 billion won ($250 million) to 109 companies that claimed compensation of financial loss incurred from the complex’s shutdown, according to the ministry, Monday.
The move is seen as Seoul moving closer to closing down the GIC for good, because after the payment is done the government gains the legal right of disposing of the companies’ assets in the North.
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Time to Think About a Cohesive Legal System for Reunified Korea
The Supreme Court on Wednesday recognized North Korean residents as blood relatives of a family in South Korea. They are the four children of a man who left in the North when the Korean War started in 1950 and settled in the South and died here. In 2011, the children won a lawsuit in a South Korean court to get a portion of their father’s inheritance that had gone to his wife and children in the South.
As exchanges between North and South Koreans increase, there has been a rise in legal disputes between families divided across both countries over inheritance and real estate ownership. At present, the only law that can be applied to deal with cross-border disputes over private assets is a special law for North and South Koreans who marry each other. The law recognizes the nullification of marriage by husbands and wives separated by the Korean War so that they can remarry here in the South, while limiting the amount of inheritance from South Korea that a North Korean can take back to the North.
After living completely isolated from each other for 60 years, people on both sides of the border will inevitably encounter various legal disputes when reunification comes. They include how to deal with land that was confiscated by the communist government of North Korea during the war, whether to recognize ownership of land in the North by people who fled to the South when the war broke out, and how to recognize an extended family that lives on both sides of the border.
[Unification]
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[Editorial] Don’t let the Kaesong Complex die due to minor disagreements
Posted on : Aug.3,2013 13:34 KST
The frustrating stalemate continues after a sixth round of working-level inter-Korean talks toward normalization of the Kaesong Complex ended on July 25 without negotiating the date for the next talks. As of August 2, Pyongyang had made no response in the five days since Seoul gave its “final offer” of talks on July 29. Concerns that the standoff between governments might lead to a permanent shutdown at the complex, once a living symbol of inter-Korean cooperation and reconciliation, are increasingly being borne out.
Unless Pyongyang has really decided that it is going to let the complex die, it needs to accept the South Korean offer and come out for renewed working-level talks. It should not simply reject the proposal out of hand, whatever its rationale. If it has some statement to make, or if some changes need to be made, then the right thing to do is meet and say so.
It’s also frustrating to see how Seoul is behaving
[Kaesong] [False balance]
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Without dialogue, all that remains is the logic of war
Posted on : Aug.2,2013 11:58 KSTModified on : Aug.2,2013 12:00 KST
Kim Yeon-chul
The give-and-take process of negotiation is the only way to build trust and find peace
By Kim Yeon-chul, Inje University professor
Seeing the breakdown of inter-Korean working-level talks on the Kaesong Industrial Complex, I find myself thinking of sixty years ago, and the armistice talks that were held then. Around March 1951, the front lines had bogged down around the 38th Parallel. The talks began that July. So why did they take another two years? Why, as a character asks in the film “The Front Line,” did we get so deep in the war for so long that we forgot what we were fighting for? The agreement was signed at ten in the morning on July 27, 1953 - so why did the gunfire continue until ten that night? For what possible reason could the war have continued on until the signed agreement took effect twelve hours later? The armistice talks weren’t talks - they were a war of their own.
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Still no North Korean response to Seoul’s offer for Kaesong talks
Posted on : Aug.1,2013 15:39 KSTModified on : Aug.1,2013 15:41 KST
Tensions could be on the rise again with more SK-US military exercises scheduled to start this month
By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter
July 31 marked the third straight day without a response from North Korea to a proposal from Seoul to resume working-level talks to normalize operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
Some observers are expressing concern that inter-Korean relations may be settling in once again for a long-term chill, but others are taking a different view.
The Unification Ministry delivered a report on the situation on July 31. “There have been normal contacts and telephone conversations between South and North through Panmunjeom, but no response from North Korea to our proposal to resume working-level talks to normalize the Complex,” it said.
It was the third straight day of silence since South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae announced on July 28 that he was approving private humanitarian aid to North Korea and proposing “final talks.”
With the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercises between the South Korean and US militaries set to begin in August, the situation on the peninsula is not favorable for a resumption of dialogue. North Korea has called the exercises “war training for an invasion.”
[Joint US military]
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