Published : Aug. 22, 2017 - 11:08
About 100 South Korean-owned cars and trucks left at the now suspended inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong have been confirmed missing, Voice of America reported Tuesday.
The report came after the US broadcaster analyzed a satellite photo of the parking lot of an apparels factory at the Kaesong complex taken June 16 by Digital Globe Inc., a US imagery and information company.
At the parking lot, about 100 vehicles were parked from February 2016, when Seoul shut down the complex in response to the North's nuclear and missile tests, to December the same year. But the June photo showed none of the vehicles remained except for a truck parked there.
This file photo, taken Aug. 11, 2017, from the Dora Observatory in Paju, north of Seoul, shows the now-shuttered South Korean industrial park (front) in the North Korean city of Kaesong. (Yonhap)
The missing vehicles, which were used by many South Korean companies, were reportedly gathered at the apparels company's spacious parking lot after the complex's shutdown.
VOA said it looked at other companies' premises but failed to locate any of the vehicles.
There is speculation that the North's authorities may have moved the vehicles out of the complex to liquidate the South's assets there.
Shortly after Seoul decided to shut down the complex, the North deported South Korean workers from the complex and one month later said it would liquidate all of the assets held by the South.
Opened in 2004, the factory zone had housed 124 South Korean firms hiring more than 54,000 North Korean workers to produce labor-intensive goods, such as clothes and utensils.
South Korea's unification ministry said it has no information to verify whether the VOA report is true but made clear that North Korea's possible use of those vehicles is an illegal act that violates local firms' property rights.
"Cars and other property at the Kaesong complex belong to South Korean firms. (If they are being illegally used), North Korea should immediately stop as they don't have our authorization," a ministry official said. (Yonhap)