South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said Tuesday she wants talks with North Korea on removing raw materials and finished products from a joint industrial complex closed by military tensions.
In a cabinet meeting, Park instructed the Unification Ministry to offer Pyongyang discussions on the Kaesong complex, which lies 10 kilometres (six miles) inside the North Korean side of the joint border.
Established in 2004 as a rare symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, Kaesong was the most high-profile casualty of two months of elevated tensions that followed the North’s nuclear test in February.
Pyongyang barred South Korean access to the zone and pulled out all its 53,000 workers early last month. Seoul withdrew the last of its nationals 10 days ago.
The South Korean government has already agreed to provide US$270 million in emergency compensation to investors from the 120 South Korean firms in Kaesong who were forced to shut down operations.
Estimates of their total losses range from 1.0 trillion to 3.0 trillion won.