Iwouldliketowelcomeyouall.Ithinkwemeetforthefirsttimesincethestartofanewyear.Firstofall,thankyouforattendingthefirstweeklybrief
I would like to welcome you all. I think we meet for the first time since the start of a new year. First of all, thank you for attending the first weekly briefing of this year.
Today, I have no particular issues to present you, but I would like to explain our measure to lower the criteria of identification investigation for tourists to Mt. Geumgang, progress of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex development project, and our assistance to North Korea.
A. Measure to Lower the Criteria and the Target People for Identification Investigation on Tourists to North Korean Area
As you are well aware, six years have passed since Mt. Geumgang tourism first embarked on Nov. 18, 1998. As of the end of last year, a total of around 857,000 people visited Mt. Geumgang, and last year alone, 268,420 people went to Mt. Geumgang. As overland tour to Mt. Geumgnag started back in Sep. 2003, and diverse tourism products have been created such as the one-day tourism product and the two days-one night tourism product since last June, the number of tourists visiting Mt.Geumgang is on the steady rise.
Against this backdrop, the South Korean government sought ways to improve procedures of identification certification so as to offer convenience to South Koreans visiting North Korea areas including Mt. Geumgang.
The government had a consultative meeting with related governmental organizations in which it decided to lower the criteria of identification investigation and reduce the scope of people who have to go through the investigation in order to get visit certificates to North Korea as a way of increasing convenience in making trips to North Korean region including Mt. Geumgang. The government will implement such measures as soon as related regulations are revised, and it may be within this month.
According to the existing law, if a person under investigation or on trial wants to visit Mt. Geumgang for a short-time trip, he/she first had to receive a certificate verifying he/she can depart from the country from a director of the Prosecutors Office, and submit it to the Ministry of Unification. But according to new measure, a person is able to make a trip to North Korea without submitting such certificates.
Last year, a number of those who had to submit such certificates accounted for around 1,800. If the new measure is implemented, those people need not to submit such certificates to trip to North Korea any longer.
Currently, we take a general identification investigation. For elementary, middle and high school students who make a group trip and those with a certificate of frequent visit to North Korea, we now will exempt them from identification investigation. If this measure is implemented, the time period for submitting the list of tourists by tourism agencies is expected to shorten to 7 days from current 10 days. We hope that such measure will offer convenience to tourism industry and tourists.
The government will continue its efforts to improve institutions and procedures concerning visit to North Korea so as to facilitate people's convenience.
B. The progress of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex Project
Next, I would like to talk about the Gaeseong Industrial Complex project.
The first products were rolled out in the Gaeseong area on the occasion of the opening ceremony for the factory of Living Art on Dec. 15, last year, and SJ Tech on Dec. 28, held the opening ceremony for its Gaeseong factory and started manufacturing.
Out of 13 companies that received business license for cooperative partnership projects from the government, 10 are now running or constructing their factories. Samdeok Trading and Shinwon will open their factories in Feb. and other remaining companies will also start construction of their factories. We expect that all 13 companies in the model site will have completed construction of factories by the second quarter of this year.
There has been some delay of scheduled events in recent days including opening ceremony for the Gaeseong Hospital of Green Doctors, delivery of briquette to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, and the working-level consultative meeting on communication.
It seems that some procedural matters on North Korean side caused such delay. But the working-level consultative meeting on communication will be resumed on Jan. 26 through 29 in Gaeseong.
Transit of vehicles and people to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex area is smoothly operated, and North Korean workers are participating in the construction operation.
The Gaeseong Industrial Complex project started last year with only 3 persons going into the area, and now, the number of people working for the project stands at about 1,800. 1,400 North Korean workers and around 400 South Koreans are working together for the smooth operation of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex project.
Recently, there have been some troubles but I would like to assure you that both South and North Korea are taking gradual steps toward the common goal of the success of the Gaeseong project.
C. The Assistance to North Korea
Next, I would like to briefly touch upon the assistance to North Korea.
We are carrying out the project of delivering 100,000 tons of corns in assistance to North Korea through the World Food Programme. The first shipment of the assistance left for North Korea on Dec. 19, last year. As of today, three shipments carrying a total of 2,000 tons of corns were sent to North Korea. 13 shipments carrying a total of 78,000 tons of corns will have been delivered by the end of Feb., completing combined 16 shipments. The cost of sending 100,000tons of corns through WFP amounts to approximately 24million dollars.
With that, I would like to wrap up my briefing.
Thank you.
