10th Anniversary of Kaesong Industrial Complex Suspension... Tenant Companies Urge "Prepare Survival Measures and Approve Visits to the Complex"

Marking the 10th anniversary of the full suspension of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the Kaesong Industrial Complex Enterprises Association urged the government to prepare survival measures and appealed to North Korea to approve visits to the complex.

Kaesong Industrial Complex Enterprises Association held a press conference at 10 a.m. on the 10th in front of the gate of the Dorasan Inter-Korean Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Office, marking the 10th anniversary of the full suspension of the Kaesong Industrial Complex. Kaesong Industrial Complex Enterprises Association

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On the 10th, the Kaesong Industrial Complex Enterprises Association held a press conference in front of the gate of the Dorasan Inter-Korean Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Office and issued an appeal titled "We Want to Go to the Kaesong Industrial Complex."

About 80 people, including Chairman Cho Kyungjoo, businesspeople from member companies of the association, and their executives and staff, attended the press conference. The participants said that over the past 10 years since the suspension of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, they have struggled for survival and recovery, and that in the process a considerable number of companies have been forced to suspend or shut down their operations.

The businesspeople called for cooperation from the South Korean government, the North Korean authorities, and the United States to enable visits to the Kaesong Industrial Complex. They also reaffirmed their determination to resume operations at the complex.

Chairman Cho Kyungjoo stated, "Even amid the longest disruption of inter-Korean communication lines in the 21st century and the worst inter-Korean relations, companies in the Kaesong Industrial Complex have not yet given up hope."

Chairman Cho pointed out, "Now, 10 years after the closure of the complex, the tenant companies of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, most of which were small and medium-sized enterprises, are facing threats to their very survival, and the prospects for resuming operations at the complex remain distant."

Chairman Cho appealed to the South Korean government for the preparation of practical survival measures for the tenant companies of the Kaesong Industrial Complex. He asked the North Korean authorities to approve visits by businesspeople to the complex, and requested that the United States play an appropriate role so that visits to the Kaesong Industrial Complex for the purpose of inspecting their assets can take place.

One businessperson who attended the press conference said, "The biggest reason we have kept our company going in difficult circumstances over the past 10 years was to someday return to the Kaesong Industrial Complex," adding, "I still vividly remember the North Korean workers we worked with, and I miss them dearly."

He continued, "So that we can at least take a small first step, we especially appeal to the North Korean side to approve visits to the North by businesspeople who have been desperately waiting for 10 years to visit the Kaesong Industrial Complex."

The Kaesong Industrial Complex began operations in 2004 and hosted more than 120 companies, but operations were suspended on February 10, 2016, under the Park Geunhye administration. At the time, the government halted operations at the complex under the pretext of responding to North Korea's fourth nuclear test and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch, and the day after the South Korean government announced the suspension, North Korea closed the complex. In 2020, citing the launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets by a North Korean defector group, North Korea blew up the inter-Korean liaison office building located in the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

According to the Kaesong Industrial Complex Enterprises Association, 40 of the 124 tenant companies in the complex, or 32%, are currently in a state of suspended or closed operations. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Unification announced that it would restore, as soon as possible, the Kaesong Industrial District Foundation, which was dissolved in 2024, and proceed with institutional preparations for the resumption of operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

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