Press Release
Unification Spokesperson’s Statement
North Korea, while not responding to our proposal for inter-Korean dialogue, made a misleading assertion and is misrepresenting the nature of the problem by proposing government participation to a civic organization in its 5.28 statement of the ‘Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland’.
North Korea must clearly recognize that such an attempt to drive a wedge in public opinion no longer has a place in our society and it must stop such attempts immediately.
All aspects regarding the establishment, operation, protection of the invested properties, guarantee of personal security of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex(GIC) were agreed upon between South and North Korean authorities.
The core of the GIC problem is that North Korea broke the existing agreements, cut off all communications channels and crossings, and unilaterally withdrew some 50,000 North Korean workers from the GIC, which resulted in the suspension of operations at the GIC.
To fundamentally solve the GIC problem, institutional measures based on international norms must be put in place so that the operation of the GIC would not be unilaterally suspended by North Korea.
The starting point of solving the GIC problem would be for North Korea to accept Inter-Korean dialogue to discuss the immediate issue of taking out the raw materials and the finished products from the GIC.
If North Korea truly has the intention to solve the GIC problem, we once again urge North Korea to immediately come out to Inter-Korean dialogue table proposed by the government.
