On Wednesday, North and South Korea agreed to restart work in the joint industrial zone at Kaesong, which is inside North Korea. It raised the hopes of possible improvement in regional politics, though some see it as the inevitable response from North Korea in the face of sanctions and other pressure it faced this year after threatening to nuke U.S. mainland.
The two countries issued a joint statement announcing that they had agreed to resume work in the Kaesong industrial zone, and expressed their intention to prevent another closure. However, the statement did not mention the date by which work was to resume.
Park Geun-hye, the South Korean President said she hoped, “today’s talks will be the beginning of a new start of South and North Korea relations.”
During the escalation of tensions this year with war rhetoric from North Korea, the Kaesong industrial zone had been shut down and North Korea threatened to attach both South Korea and the United States.
However, South Korea remains one of the richest countries in the world, and North Korea economically backward. The North is marginalized due to its political ideologies and dynastic rule backed by military, and for the country, the Kaesong industrial zone is one of the most important sources of currency.
The situation is further complicated due to the fact that the 1950-53 civil conflict did not end in a treaty but in a cease war and truce – keeping the countries technically at war between themselves.
The joint statement mentioned the “South and North guarantee the industrial zone’s normal operation … without influence of any kind from the political situation.” The statement also noted that the countries would hold an investor’s event.
Since the launch of the joint industrial zone in 2004, the complex has generated roughly the equivalent of $90 million in wages paid directly into the North Korean agency that manages the Kaesong zone.