South Korea plans to unveil a set of measures as early as this week to support local firms that suffer from business setbacks due to the shutdown of a joint industrial park in North Korea, a Seoul official said Sunday.
The government is likely to soon announce supportive measures to help South Korean firms facing financial losses from Seoul's decision to close the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North in February.
Kaesong Industrial Complex (Yonhap)
On Feb. 10, South Korea shut down the complex, which housed 124 South Korean firms, in response to the North's nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February.
"As early as this week, the government plans to unveil a package of supportive measures, as detailed inspections into their financial losses have been completed," said a government official, asking not to be named.
The measures, which may be worth some 100 billion won ($83.9 million), are likely to focus on covering losses related to their liquid assets such as finished products and raw materials. The companies estimate such losses to be about 250 billion won.
The South Korean firms have claimed that they have suffered more than 815 billion won in losses from the shutdown, adding that the actual damage could be much larger.
The government has offered financial support to help them cover financial losses related to their fixed assets with a state insurance policy. The firms are presumed to have been inflicted with about 570 billion won in losses over fixed assets.
The complex, which opened in 2004, had served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped North.
The factory zone, some 50 kilometers northwest of Seoul, employed more than 54,000 North Korean workers to produce labor-intensive goods such as clothes and utensils. (Yonhap)