North Korea on Wednesday postponed scheduled talks to enhance communications links and ease access to and from the inter-Korean factory park in Gaesong.
The Ministry of Unification in Seoul said Pyongyang called for a delay of the sub-panel meeting without giving a reason or setting up an alternate date. The meeting was set to take place at the Gaesong Industrial Complex on Thursday.
Issues on communications links include building infrastructure, allowing Internet access to factories at the North Korean border town and permitting South Korean workers to use their mobile phones. Improving customs inspections is also part of the agenda that is critical if the complex wants to become globally competitive.
The North had said earlier in the month that it will allow easier movement into the complex and expressed a willingness to incorporate radio frequency identification tags (RFID) to make it even easier to enter Gaesong from the South.
"Because of the abrupt move, only the sub-panel meeting that aims to strengthen the rights of South Koreans working in Gaesong will be held," the ministry in charge of all cross-border relations said.
The meetings have been arranged as part of the landmark Aug. 14 deal to reopen the industrial zone that had been closed since early April after the North pulled out all of its 53,000 workers amid a spike in political and military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean factories started churning out products once more on Sept. 16, although they have yet to run at levels reached before the shutdown.
The communist country signed a deal creating a new joint management committee that gives Seoul equal say in the running of the complex. In the past the North's General Bureau for Central Guidance to the Development of the Special Zone ran Gaesong.
The committee has four sub-panels and a dedicated secretariat to help establish new rules and safeguards that can prevent the North from unilaterally closing down Gaesong. The secretariat is expected to begin work next Monday. (Yonhap News)
