South Korean real estate being auctioned in joint industrial park for first time

SEOUL, July 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korean company-owned real estate in the troubled
inter-Korean joint industrial park was put to auction for the first time, sources
said Monday, a sign of financial hardships amid heightened tensions on the Korean
Peninsula.
According to the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee in Seoul, a
factory lot stretching 20,472 square meters in the North Korean border town of
Kaesong is being auctioned. Sources said the land belonged to a Busan-based
company that had acquired it to build a factory. The bidding deadline is July 23.

It was not immediately known why the company decided to sell the land, but
sources believe the firm was unable to make the payments.
South Korean companies in Kaesong have complained that government restrictions on
their activities have hindered their businesses. After a Seoul-led multinational
probe held North Korea responsible for the March 26 torpedo attack that led to
the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, the South reduced the number of
its workers in Kaesong. It also banned cross-border trade as part of punitive
measures against North Korea, which denies any role in the sinking that took 46
South Korean lives.
The South fears for the safety of its citizens at Kaesong, but business
representatives have been pushing the government to ease its restrictions.
The Kaesong park opened in 2004 as a result of the first inter-Korean summit four
years earlier, and is the only venture still standing as a symbol of cross-border
reconciliation efforts.
About 120 South Korean firms in Kaesong employ some 42,000 North Korean workers
to produce price-competitive goods by combining the South's capital with the
North's cheap labor.
jeeho@yna.co.kr
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