[THE INVESTOR] Around 66 percent of earmarked support funds have been disbursed to firms operating at the now-shuttered Gaesong Industrial Complex to help cover their financial losses, the government said Aug. 5.
The government has offered 336.9 billion won (US$303 million) out of about 500 billion won in state funds to South Korean companies at the industrial complex in North Korea, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.
Seoul shut down the factory zone on Feb. 10 in response to Pyongyang’s January nuclear test and the following long-range rocket launch.
The decision came amid concerns that money generated from the factory zone is bankrolling the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
The shutdown of the complex is presumed to have inflicted more than 815 billion won in losses, the local firms said, adding that the government’s financial support is not sufficient.
The complex, which opened in 2004, had served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped North. A total of 124 South Korean companies operated in the zone, some 50 kilometers northwest of Seoul, employing more than 54,000 North Korean workers to produce labor-intensive goods, such as clothes and utensils.
