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On day of Jang’s purge, North proposes to hold joint Kaesong park committee

On day of Jang’s purge, North proposes to hold joint Kaesong park committee

Posted December. 14, 2013 04:14,   

한국어

When the execution of Jang Song Thaek, former vice chairman of North Korea’s National Defense Commission was made public on Friday, companies operating in Kaesong Industrial Park and parties involved in inter-Korean economic cooperation paid keen attention to the North’s moves. But not many firms are worried about possible disruptions in their business, because the North is not linking the “Jang fiasco” with inter-Korean economic ties, with Pyongyang taking the initiative to propose a fourth meeting of the joint Kaesong park committee.

Yoo Chang-geun, chairman of SJ Tech who visited the inter-Korean complex on Thursday, said, “Around the time of Jang’s dismissal from his post, the North’s general management bureau had no personnel change and was operating stably.” Despite this, certain companies are concerned that the rapid political upheaval in the North could pose an obstacle to their efforts to attract foreign buyers. “The number of foreign buyers has yet to rebound to the level years ago,” said Jeong Gi-seop, chairman of SNG. He expressed concern, saying, “While foreign buyers still have doubt about inter-Korean economic cooperation, they will naturally feel anxious to see a seismic change in the North’s internal power structure as well.”

Hyundai Asan is also waiting to see in composure the progressing of the situation in the North. “As for the Kaesong Industrial Park, everything has remained normal thus far, with a project to construct a radiofrequency identification system kicking off on Wednesday,” said a source at the company. “We can only afford to keep watching what impact the change of power structure in the North will bring about.”