Gaeseong Industrial District Foundation to disband as early as next week

The South Korean government will disband the Gaeseong Industrial District Foundation, which was founded to support businesses in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, as early as next week. The announcement came eight years after Seoul shut down the complex in response to Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear tests and long-range missile launches in 2016.

The Ministry of Unification announced on Sunday that it will propose a revised bill on the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Support for Gaeseong Industrial Complex, by which the foundation’s responsibilities will be assigned to the South-North Korea Exchanges and Cooperation Support Association, a privately run organization, at the State Council of South Korea scheduled this Tuesday. The revised bill has to pass the cabinet meeting and obtain presidential approval before it is announced by the official gazette one week later. Once the revised act is published officially, the foundation will resolve a dissolution proposal at a board meeting. It is expected to be dissolved around next Wednesday at the earliest.

The Gaeseong Industrial District Foundation was created under the Unification Ministry around 2007 to take charge of immigration inspection and facility management for the convenience of South Korean businesses in the complex. Since February 2016, when the complex went offline, the foundation has been out of business, with only counseling and registration services provided partially. The government decided to disband the organization given that it costs an annual average of around seven billion won for operation and staff expenses and building rental fees, with the complex staying offline for a long time.

Pyongyang has arbitrarily operated 30 South Korean business facilities left in the complex. As of this February, it put 23 to 24 percent of the 123 South Korean businesses in the complex to unauthorized use, according to the South Korean government. It has been reported that the regime runs commuter buses in Pyongyang and downtown Gaeseong with Hangul-written signboards removed from all the buildings in the complex. VOA reported on Sunday that Pyongyang completely cleared up the debris of the inter-Korean liaison office.


고도예 yea@donga.com