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In other news. After a marathon meeting over the weekend,
the two Koreas came to a number of agreements over the shuttered inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial
Complex. The two sides will continue talks on normalizing
the business park on Wednesday,. but there are still challenges ahead.
Our Hwang Sung-hee has the details. South Korea's Unification Ministry made it clear
on Monday that factories at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex will not start running until North
Korea meets certain preconditions.
"Operations at the Gaeseong complex will resume when the Koreas come up with preventive measures
against such closures from happening again and when the complex is on its way to a 'constructive
development.'"
Following a marathon meeting over the weekend, the two Koreas agreed to continue their talks
on Wednesday in Gaeseong, where they will discuss more complicated issues regarding
the normalization of the business park. These include getting the North to admit responsibility
for the prolonged shutdown and setting preventive measures for future closures.
The South also said it would like improvements to the way the two Koreas communicate over
Gaeseong matters, the passageways leading in and out of the complex, and customs clearance
methods. Although the two Koreas agreed in principle
on Sunday to restart operations at the joint business park, they remain divided on various
fronts. For one, North Korea wants the factories at
the joint business park to start running as soon as possible, while the South stressed
that operations will resume only if Pyongyang provides safeguards to prevent a repeat of
similar closures. The view is being echoed by South Korean businessmen
with factories at the border town who will be inspecting their facilities at Gaeseong
on Wednesday. While Sunday's inter-Korean agreement was
welcome news, the businessmen also called for the two Koreas to come up with clear countermeasures
at the upcoming weekend to ensure that similar incidents don't happen again.
Hwang Sung-hee, Arirang News.