Cross-border bizmen urge removal of sanctions on N. Korea
2014/10/22 15:54
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- A group of South Korean businessmen involved in cross-border economic exchange called Wednesday for the lifting of years-old sanctions on North Korea, saying that such a move would help improve inter-Korean ties.
The North has repeatedly demanded the South lift the so-called May 24 measures, introduced in 2010 to punish the communist country for its deadly sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March of the same year.
Most recently, the North called for the removal in high-level military talks between the rival Koreas, held on Oct. 15.
"Without a fundamental enhancement in South-North relations, (the government push for) globalizing and re-invigorating the Kaesong Industrial Complex is impossible," Chung Ki-sup, the head of the council of South Korean companies operating in the Kaesong factory park, said in a policy forum on inter-Korean economic exchanges.
In order to pursue such a fundamental enhancement, "the government should loosen or totally lift the May 24 sanctions," Chung said.
The sanctions have made it legally impossible to construct employee accommodations in the factory park, Chung said, referring to the only remaining symbol of inter-Korean economic projects. Lifting the sanctions may help boost the government's current trust-building policy toward the North, he added.
Chung Yang-geun, a co-chairman of the Private Inter-Korean Economic Exchange Council, concurred, claiming that four years after the sanctions, a growing number of companies involved in cross-border business are being driven out of business.
"Before the sanctions, there were around 2,000 firms in the inter-Korean economic exchange business, but now it is even impossible to exactly determine who is still afloat," he said.
The calls came amid growing hopes for a shift in the government's firm stance to keep the sanctions.
Just before recent inter-Korean military talks, President Park Geun-hye said in a meeting of the state unification preparation committee that the May 24 measures should be resolved through dialogue with North Korean officials.
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