The shutdown of an inter-Korean industrial complex in North Korea may not change Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development, but it can open the door to reform of the country's command economy, a U.S. expert said.

William Brown, an adjunct lecturer in the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, made the point in a recent article carried by the North Korea-monitoring website 38 North, arguing that the Kaesong industrial complex helped keep alive the North's state enterprises and command economy.

"Closure might not change North Korea's nuclear and missile development, but it can open the door to reform driven by the continued slow-motion collapse of North Korea's command economy, of which, Kaesong has been an integral part," the professor said.

"Furthermore, as a reformed economy is probably the only thing that will convince Kim Jong Un to quit his nuclear ambitions, we should make all efforts to encourage economic reform in North Korea," he said.

South Korea shut down the complex, bringing an end to the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. The decision was seen as the strongest non-military measure that South Korea could take against the North in response to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests.

Brown said that Kaesong was one of "a long list of West European, Japanese and even American projects putatively aimed at helping North Korea transform its economy, but which instead have helped it degenerate into the mess it is today."

"Feeding the state these foreign interventions has allowed Pyongyang to muddle along without allowing an efficient private export industry to develop, something terribly needed by the people so they can earn money to feed and support themselves," he said.

The specific economic problem with Kaesong is that the 54,000 workers that had been hired by South Korean factories in the zone have never been paid in real money. Instead, they have been provided rations from the state agency that manages the project, the expert said.

"A new deal in which Kaesong is reopened with direct pay to workers and a reasonable tax cut for the state would signal real economic reform and should be welcomed by all sides," he said. (Yonhap)