South Korean Government Spends $8.5 Million to Renovate Kaesong Liaison Office

This seems like an awful lot of money to renovate an office building:

This photo provided by the unification ministry shows a four-story building that will be used for the liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Sunday unveiled details about the money it spent to renovate the inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, amid criticism that it spent too much on the project.

The ministry sent the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and unification a document containing details of the costs of the office, which launched on Sept. 14 as a communication platform for cross-border cooperation and exchanges.

Of the total expenditures, which amounted to 9.78 billion won ($8.56 million), the cost for renovation materials, including construction equipment and pipes, was 3.49 billion won, while labor costs amounted to 2.58 billion won.

The costs for materials to construct the office’s main building, accommodation facility and other amenities were 1.22 billion won, 570 million won and 560 million won, respectively, the ministry said.   [Joong Ang Ilbo via a reader tip]

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n2guns
n2guns
6 years ago

I wonder how much of the 2.58 billion won in labor cost went to the North Korean workers and how much went to Kim.
I guess that part will never be in a report…

Flyingsword
Flyingsword
6 years ago

.5 to renovate…rest went to KJU

J6Junkie
J6Junkie
6 years ago

Fatty bought the Rolls and several dozen handbags with that money.

setnaffa
setnaffa
6 years ago

It may actually require Divine Intervention to wake South Koreans up before North Korea stuffs an apple in their mouths and buries them at the luau… being invited to North Korea lets the current ROK politicians and chaebol leaders seem enamored of the possibilities, while ignoring the historical consequences of taking selfies at the top of the waterfall…

AppeasingNorthKorea
AppeasingNorthKorea
6 years ago

SETNAFFA, most South Koreans don’t care because this is not being reported widely. They sleep and think all is well because that’s what they are lead to believe by the media.

BUT CLEARLY, THIS IS AN UN SANCTIONS VIOLATIONS.

If the US decides to sanction South Korea citing Secondary Boycott, South Korea has only themselves to blame.

If that happens, just wait for the anti-American feelings to explode in South Korea. Because up to this point, the South Korean left have been biding their time, thinking that the US will soon end the sanctions and they didn’t want to upset that cart.

But if the US indicates that they won’t buy into South Korean leftist government’s games, then all bets are off, and look for them to come out swinging with anti-American shills doing their best to whip up the Korean public.

This time, I don’t think Trump will just sit by and do nothing.

rocketman
rocketman
6 years ago

I wonder how much NK contributed to this project?

AppeasingNorthKorea
AppeasingNorthKorea
6 years ago

Rocketman, exactly $0.00 dollars.

J6Junkie
J6Junkie
6 years ago

They contributed by showing up and taking money home.

Smokes
6 years ago

Well they had to restore the entire facility from the absolutely looted state the DPRK left it in. :mrgreen:

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