This photo, taken from the South Korean border town of Paju, north of Seoul, on June 19, 2020, shows the inter-Korean liaison office (L circle) in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, which North Korea exploded on June 16. The support center for the Kaesong Industrial Complex (R circle) was severely damaged by the indirect impact of the explosion. (Yonhap)
Inter-Korean liaison office This file photo shows the inter-Korean liaison office building at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea when it opened for operation in December 2007. North Korea destroyed the building on June 16, 2020, after threatening to take strong measures against Seoul. (Yonhap)
This is something that very visible, but at the same time no cost to North Korea to do:
Smoke rises from North Korea’s border town of Kaesong on June 16, 2020, as North Korea, according to the unification ministry, blew up the inter-Korean liaison office there in protest over South Korean activists’ anti-regime leaflet campaign, in this photo provided by a Yonhap reader.
North Korea blew up the inter-Korean joint liaison office in its border town of Kaesong on Tuesday, sharply escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula after near-daily threats to punish Seoul over anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets.
The surprise explosion sparked concern that the communist nation could put other threats against the South into action, including taking military action and moving troops to border regions disarmed under inter-Korean agreements.
South Korea expressed “strong regret” and warned the North not to aggravate the situation.
“The destruction … is an act that breaches the hope of all people wishing for the development of inter-Korean relations and a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Cheong Wa Dae said in a statement after an emergency meeting of the National Security Council.
“The government makes clear that all responsibility caused by this rests totally with the North Korean side,” he said. “We sternly warn that if North Korea takes steps further aggravating the situation, we will respond strongly to it.”
You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime has no fear that the Blue House “will respond strongly to it” and that is part of the problem. The Kim regime expects a Hans Blix style response.
The Kim regime will likely next occupy all the DMZ outposts they vacated two years ago. This will force the ROK Army to reoccupy their outposts, but they blew them up and would have to rebuild them all. By the way does anyone still think the shots fired last month by North Korea at a ROK DMZ guard post was still unintentional as the Moon administration has been claiming? This is all part of the usual provocation patterns used by the Kim regime for decades to extract the concessions they want from South Korea.
In this case it is to defy international sanctions and move forward with the cross-border projects they want the ROK to fund. It also appears they are using this provocation cycle to build up Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong’s standing within the regime since she has been the main spokesperson so far.
At best, a conduit for N Korean diktat & S Korean self-censorship. More likely a cradle of comingling coffers for coddling Kim, dodging sanctions, & breeding anti-US, anti-Japanese sentiment. https://t.co/9Qz4i5rRB3
Here is the latest on the opening of the Inter-Korean office at Kaesong:
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 and North Korea launched their joint liaison office on Friday, securing a platform for round-the-clock communication that is expected to help foster cross-border exchange and ease tensions.
The liaison office was launched in the North’s border town of Kaesong, with around 50 people each from the two Koreas attending the opening ceremony.
The move is a follow-up on an agreement that the leaders of the two Koreas reached in their April summit to run such an office on hopes that the office will serve as a communication channel to help facilitate inter-Korean cooperation on various fronts.
“The inter-Korean joint liaison office is a channel for round-the-clock communication in the new era of peace,” South Korea’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said in a congratulatory speech. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link but according to the article South Korea will have around 20 people working there.
This undated file photo, released by the Cultural Heritage Administration on Sept. 11, 2018, shows the site of Manwoldae, which was the palace of the 918-1392 Goryeo Dynasty, in the North Korean city of Kaesong. The administration said that it has agreed during a working-level meeting with the North’s National Reconciliation Council in Kaesong on Sept. 6 to conduct a joint survey and preservation of the Manwoldae site for three months from Sept. 27 to Dec. 27. (Yonhap)
It appears that the Moon administration is trying to develop a political path to bring the Kaesong Industrial Park back from the dead:
This file photo shows the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the now-shuttered inter-Korean industrial park, just north of the inter-Korean border. (Yonhap)
Ousted former President Park Geun-hye unilaterally ordered the shutdown of an inter-Korean industrial complex last year without proper consultations or a legitimate process, a panel report showed Thursday.
The report was unveiled by a nine-member committee of civilian experts that has been reviewing the previous conservative governments’ North Korea policies, including Seoul’s closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in February 2016. The panel was launched by Seoul’s unification ministry in September.
The Park administration shut down the factory zone, just north of the inter-Korean border, in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in 2016. The move put an end to the last symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation.
“It is verified that the closure was decided by the president’s unilateral verbal order without discussions or consultations at the official decision-making level,” the report showed.
The former government said that the shutdown was decided at a National Security Council meeting on Feb. 10, 2016, right before the announcement. But the report showed that Park made the order two days earlier.
It also said that the closure was a decision that transcended law, adding that even a political decision amid a security crisis should be made within the boundary of law and under legal procedures. [Yonhap]
It was no secret that the Kaesong Industrial Park could be shutdown in retaliation for North Korean provocations. There were plenty of discussions over a prolonged period of time before the final shutdown in 2016. Park may have decided she wanted to shutdown Kaesong, but she still clearly held a National Security Council meeting to discuss it before the final decision was announced. This seems like an extreme reach to try and find fault with the decision making process in my opinion.
Here is the most ridiculous part of the government’s findings:
At that time, the ministry said that the decision was aimed at preventing money generated by the industrial park from bankrolling North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.
But the panel said that there is no sufficient information or evidence to support the claim that funds from the complex had been used for other purposes.
“This hampers the legitimacy of the government’s decision and limits Seoul’s future stance over the resumption of the Kaesong complex,” the report showed.
The Kim regime is paid directly in US dollars which makes it very easy for the Kim regime to divert the money to support their weapons programs as has been previously reported:
South Korea said 70 percent of the U.S. dollars paid as wages and fees for the suspended Kaesong industrial project, run jointly with the North, had been diverted for Pyongyang’s weapons program and luxury goods for leader Kim Jong Un. (……)
“The wages for the North’s workers and other fees were paid in cash in U.S. dollars to the North’s authorities and not to the workers,” South Korea’s Unification Ministry said on Sunday. “This is believed to be channeled in the same way as other foreign currency it earned.”
The cash is then kept and managed by the ruling Workers’ Party’s Office 39 and other agencies, the ministry said. The ministry said it had confirmed the movement of the money through various sources but did not specify them.
Office 39 is widely believed to exist to finance the luxurious lifestyle of the North’s leader. The office is also believed to be part of the North’s agencies that fund the country’s missile and nuclear program. [Reuters]
For the Moon administration to claim that no money from Kaesong was used to support the Kim regime’s weapons programs is very deceptive. This is because the Kim regime is not going to provide a financial audit that shows conclusively where the dollars they received went to. However, reasonable people can conclude that any money received by the Kim regime from Kaesong to fund their government is more money ultimately available to fund their weapons programs.
The Moon administration clearly has a political motive to try and reopen Kaesong, but I would be very surprised if the Trump administration will ever agree to this. Could you imagine the Tweet storm from President Trump if President Moon announces the reopening of the Kaesong Industrial Complex?
I hope no one is shocked by this news that the North Koreans sent undercover agents into the Kaesong Industrial complex to monitor workers and steal technology. I would be more surprised if they did not. It will be interesting to see how much the North Koreans have learned over the past ten years to see if they can run this industrial park by themselves:
Internal North Korean documents exclusively obtained by KBS have revealed that the communist state may have prepared for freezing assets of South Korean businesses at the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex from the early stages of the cross-border project.
Papers from organizations of North Korea’s Workers’ Party in 2006 show directives to Pyongyang officials to learn and acquire the South’s “advanced” technologies at the Gaeseong industrial park.
While calling South Korea the “enemy,” the orders also stress that the North’s officials must be able to manage and run the factory facilities without the South’s help.
Another exclusively obtained document suggests that the North Korean regime also set up a surveillance unit to monitor workers at the factory park. Circumstantial evidence has also been revealed to suggest that North Korean soldiers could have been employed at the industrial complex as undercover agents.
Papers from North Korea’s Sixth Infantry Division also show authorities there had aimed to minimize the consumption and intake of South Korean products and “capitalist” culture. [KBS World]
This has been something I have been saying for years that the Kaesong Industrial Complex is a cash cow for the Kim regime which further helps them build the very weapons they use to threaten South Korea and the international community with:
South Korea said Wednesday it has decided to “completely” shut down a joint industrial complex in North Korea in response to the North’s recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.
The Unification Ministry announced that it will suspend the operation of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North’s border city of the same name, the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation.
Seoul’s move is part of its “bone-numbing” measures against North Korea’s nuclear test on Jan. 6 and its long-range missile launch earlier this week.
On Sunday, the North launched a long-range rocket carrying a satellite, which Seoul and Washington view as a cover for a banned test of intercontinental ballistic technology.
“Despite our efforts to support the Kaesong complex, the factory zone is seen as being used for North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles,” Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said in a press briefing. “We’ve decided to halt the operation of the Kaesong complex to prevent South Korean money from being funneled into the North’s nuke and missile developments and to protect our companies.” [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but I think the Park administration has left Kaesong open as something of a bargaining chip to make the North Koreans behave. This clearly has not worked and finally the Park administration has had enough and shut it down.
