New South Korean leader may renew joint project with North

SEOUL: In February 2016 Yoo Changgeun and around 120 other South Korean businessmen frantically pulled their staff out of the Kaesong Industrial Zone, jointly run with North Korea.

Seoul had ordered it closed after Pyongyang defied international warnings and tested a long-range rocket.

Now, with South Koreans in tomorrow’s presidential election almost certain to elect liberal Moon Jae-in, they have reason for hope. Moon has promised to reopen the complex, the signature project of the so-called “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with North Korea pursued earlier this century.

“We are more hopeful than ever,” Yoo says. “Moon might not be able to reopen Kaesong right away but he will follow steps toward it in the course of improving SouthNorth Korean relations.”

But reopening Kaesong could go against the spirit of UN sanctions to prevent money from going into North Korea’s banned weapons programmes, government officials and experts say.

And for Moon to justify a return to engagement, North Korea would first need to at least signal a concession, said Lim Eulchul, a professor at Kyungnam University in South Korea.

“Most importantly, not to make further provocation, like no more nuclear and missile tests. It can come out and show some kind of forward-looking stance, even if it is just words,” Lim said.

North Korea hinted at further nuclear tests as recently as last week, saying it will bolster its nuclear force “to the maximum” “in a consecutive and successive way”.

The isolated country has carried out five nuclear tests and a series of missile tests despite ever-tightening UN and other international sanctions. – Reuters