It’s Still “Business as Usual” Until Kaesong Closes
The government on Monday banned citizens from going to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea, site of an inter-Korean reconciliation project, as tension on the peninsula remains taut. The Ministry of Unification, citing “security concerns” for South Koreans working there, said it would monitor the situation and decide on a day-to-day basis whether to recommence travel to the complex or other parts of the North.
“If the situation gets any worse, the ban could be extended,” an official of the ministry said. [….]
Under the ban, the more than 600 citizens who were scheduled to go to work at the industrial enclave were prevented from crossing into the North. The 200 South Koreans currently staying at the complex were not required to return to the South, but according to the ministry, more than 100 opted to do so.
In spite of everything, Kaesong still managed to expand its output last month. Certainly tensions and political interference will continue to deter new investment. Yet behind every South Korean diplomat, official, or politician who declares his outrage at the North’s attacks, threatens retaliation, or asks other nations to put pressure on the regime, Kaesong is the elephant that lurks with eyes downcast, trying to look as inconspicuous as an elephant can. As Defense Minister Kim Kwan Jin said, the continued operation of the complex “could hamper military responses to the North,” and with all of those potential South Korean hostages inside North Korea, it’s not hard to see why. There is also a very real question whether Kaesong’s largely unaccounted-for payments are consistent with the financial provisions of UNSCR 1874. Finally, there is the question of Kaesong’s “optics,” and what it does to Seoul’s diplomatic credibility when it demands that China, for example, exert financial pressure on North Korea. No matter how tough the ROK government talks, and even as the North attacks South Korean territory and kills its people, the continued operation of Kaesong screams “business as usual.”