Moon vows to invite int’l biz to NK’s Kaesong

SOUTH Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday said he would seek to turn the Kaesong industrial complex into a factory zone for foreign corporations, if the manufacturing village in North Korea’s border city resumes operation.

Moon was speaking at a luncheon with business representatives in South Korea.

The remarks came a week after he, in an address delivered at the UN, urged support from the international community for designating areas linking the truce village of Panmunjeom and Kaesong in the North as special regions for cooperation for peace.

On Friday, he was responding to Kim Ki-mun, chairman of an advocacy organisation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who said 90 per cent of the organisation’s members were willing to return to Kaesong, where operations have been suspended for years.

The complex, located some 50km northwest of Seoul, had served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped North since opening in 2004.

More than 54,000 North Korean workers produced labour-intensive goods such as clothes and utensils. Seoul shut down the factory zone in 2016 in response to Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

The list of people at Friday’s luncheon included Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Park Yong-maan, Korea Employers Federation head Sohn Kyung-shik and Korea International Trade Association chief Kim Young-ju.

When asked about adjustments to the 52-hour workweek system, Moon said the government was considering fixing problems raised by SMEs.

Businesses, particularly smaller ones, have been saying that the shorter workweek system imposes significant financial burdens on them, at a time when they are already struggling with a slowing economy.

The meeting came amid growing concerns about deflation.

South Korea’s consumer prices fell 0.4 per cent last month from last year, marking the first year-on-year drop in headline inflation since the government began compiling related data in 1965.

South Korea’s exports fell 11.7 per cent year-on-year last month, hit by weak chip prices and worsening Sino-US trade dispute.

Asia’s fourth largest economy has been also facing trade row with Japan over the neighbouring country’s restrictions on exports of key materials for chip fabrications since July.