N. Korea restores communication channel, future of joint complex uncertain

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, UPDATES with military channel to normalize, border sealed,
vice minister's press conference)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, March 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea told South Korea on Friday it will
normalize their severed military communication channel as a U.S.-South Korean
military drill ended, but the future of a joint industrial complex is uncertain
amid the North's ban on border crossing.
North Korea initially cut off the only remaining phone and fax channel and shut
the border as a U.S.-South Korean military exercise got underway on March 9. It
said the suspensions will be effective throughout the joint drill period.
As the allies wrapped up their 12-day Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drill on Friday,
the North Korean military sent a letter to South Korea saying it will restore the
communication channel. But it made no mention about whether border crossings will
be normalized.
North Korea sealed the inter-Korean border three times during the joint military
exercise, with the latest closure on Friday. The measure threatened production in
the joint industrial complex in North Korea's border town of Kaesong, as hundreds
of South Korean workers and cargo trucks were forced to cancel their trips.
Even after the joint drill ended, "North Korea sealed overland passage again,
which makes us question whether it is willing to continue the Kaesong industrial
complex," Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho said in a press conference.
The North Korean military, which is in charge of border crossing, ignored South
Korean calls to open its border as it did on Monday and Friday last week. North
Korea allowed only six people -- four Chinese nationals and two South Koreans,
one ill and the other to be married -- to return in the evening.
"The North Korean side did not give us an answer, only saying they are waiting
for a directive from above," the vice minister said.
The arbitrary, repeated closures over the past two weeks sparked fears about
doing business in the Kaesong complex.
Just an hour's drive from Seoul, 101 South Korean firms operate at the joint
complex, joining South Korean capital and technology with North Korean labor.
About 39,000 North Koreans are employed there, producing clothes, watches,
kitchenware, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods. Their combined
output was worth US$250 million last year.
The Kaesong venture is the only major reconciliatory project that remains intact
from 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 degenerated last year.
The North Korean government received $26 million in wages from South Korean firms
last year, according to ministry data. The amount was sizable, given the North's
estimated export volume of $4 billion.
By closing the border and withdrawing the measure, analysts said, the North
showed itself to be in full command of the inter-Korean situation, while the
South had few options to take. The Kaesong complex taught North Korea a "new
pattern" of pressuring the Seoul government, and Pyongyang will eventually give
up the lucrative venture should Seoul maintain its tough policy, said Paik
Hak-soon with the non-governmental Sejong Institute in Seoul.
"It's wrong to think North Korea won't make a political decision for the sake of
the money that comes from the Kaesong complex," Paik said.
"Politics comes first," he said, citing the impoverished state's recent decision
to reject further food aid from the U.S. government.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)