The two Koreas are gearing up for a tough negotiation on Wednesday in Gaeseong to reopen the idled industrial park.
Eight officials of South Korean agencies including the Unification Ministry entered the border city on Tuesday morning to ready the venue, communications and other facilities.
Accompanying them are 25 people from the complex management committee, KT Corp., Korea Electric Power Corp. and other organizations.
It was the first border-crossing by South Koreans since the last batch of management committee executives pulled out from the complex on May 3, days after Pyongyang barred their entry and withdrew its 53,000 workers in an apparent fury over U.N. sanctions and Seoul-Washington military drills.
Following a three-month closure, the two Koreas held their first formal dialogue in years at the border village of Panmunjeom last Saturday and tentatively agreed to reopen the joint industrial zone “when ready.”
Wrapping up 16 hours of grueling negotiations, they also decided to let in factory owners on Wednesday to check and repair their facilities and ship out goods, materials and some equipment.
Each of the 123 companies running plants in Gaeseong plans to send one representative in two groups through Thursday.
Suh Ho, head of the Unification Ministry’s inter-Korean cooperation district support directorate, and Park Chol-su, vice director of the General Bureau of the Special Zone Development Guidance, are expected to meet again at the complex on the same day to discuss how to forestall unilateral suspension in the future.
But their second round of talks is expected to be even tougher. The two sides remain at odds over who is responsible for the unprecedented suspension of the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement.
During the Saturday meeting, Suh demanded that Pyongyang express a “responsible position” for the unilateral entry ban and mounting losses for the firms.
He also raised the need for “institutional measures” to prevent a relapse and to ensure easy passage, communications and customs as key to “future-oriented normalization” of the district.
The North, for its part, prioritized a swift resumption of the complex and maintenance of facilities for the rainy spell.
After Seoul’s decision to pull out its staff in late April, it accused the Park Geun-hye administration of making the park a scapegoat of its “confrontational policy” toward Pyongyang and shifted blame for any shutdown.
“We took the first step (toward the complex’s normalization) during the working-level talks last weekend but the real important one is now beginning,” a Unification Ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
