Seoul minister rules out closing joint industrial park in N. Korea

SEOUL, March 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification minister said Wednesday that his government will not consider shutting down a joint inter-Korean industrial complex and urged North Korea not to repeat arbitrary border closures.

"We are not considering shutting it down," Hyun In-taek said in a forum with
journalists in Seoul.
"Our government's position is that the Kaesong industrial complex should be
developed in a stable manner," he said. "If North Korea continues to ... cause
losses to our companies and create an environment that is worrisome to outside
investors, it cannot develop stably as our government wants it."
The North Korean military sealed the border twice last week as a U.S.-South
Korean military exercise got underway in and around South Korea.
The North lifted a days-long ban on border crossings on Tuesday, normalizing
visits by South Korean workers and cargo trucks to the joint industrial complex
in the North's border town of Kaesong, but uncertainty lingered over Pyongyang's
intentions and border stability.
"North Korea should not repeat this behavior," the minister said.
The Kaesong venture is the only major reconciliatory project that remains intact,
an outcome of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. Other projects -- including
tours to the North's scenic Mount Kumgang and historic sites in Kaesong, an
ancient Korean capital -- have all been suspended as political relations have
degenerated since last year.
Ninety-three South Korean firms operate in Kaesong, employing about 39,000 North
Koreans who produce clothes, watches, kitchenware, electronic equipment and other
labor-intensive goods. Their combined output was US$250 million last year.