Seoul-funded estate sees more North Koreans

Statistics from South Korea’s unification ministry show North Korean workers numbered 37,168 in Kaesong, the estate just north of the border, on Friday, up from 36,618 on Nov. 31.

On Dec. 1 North Korea imposed stricter border controls and expelled hundreds of South Koreans from Kaesong amid strained cross-border ties, leading to fears in Seoul that Kaesong will eventually be closed down.

“The latest statistics show North Korea will not shut down Kaesong but thoroughly protect business there,” Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Seoul’s Dongguk University, told AFP.

“The North is saying tighter border controls are targeting the Seoul government, not private businesses there, in a dual-track policy on the South.”

The economic benefits that Kaesong brings are something that the poor communist country cannot easily give up, he added.

The 37,000 North Koreans work for 88 South Korean firms in the complex, earning around 70 dollars a month to produce light industrial goods.

Kaesong, just north of the heavily fortified border, was a new business model with the North providing the cheap labor which the South lacks and Seoul providing the investment and know-how.

Past liberal governments in Seoul had actively pushed to expand the project, but conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in February and signalled a tougher line with the North.

Lee has angered the North by linking major economic aid to progress in Pyongyang’s nuclear disarmament.

Pyongyang is also angry at anti-North leaflets floated across the border by activists, and also at Seoul’s decision to censure it over its human rights record.

Relations were strained even further by the fatal July shooting by northern soldiers of a Seoul female tourist.

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