76 foreign diplomats visit N.K.’s Kaesong complex

Posted on : 2006-06-13 17:16 KST Modified on : 2019-10-20 17:20 KST
U.S. ambassador among tour group
 including U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow
including U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow


Foreign diplomats, including U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow, visited the inter-Korean industrial park in Kaesong, North Korea, on June 12. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon accompanied 76 diplomats on their first-ever visit to the industrial complex. Invited ambassadors from Japan, China and Russia did not join the event.

The diplomatic corps toured several production facilities, such as Bucheon Industrial Co., Taesung Co., and a business establishment of Hyundai Asan, as well as the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee. The visitors took many photos, and asked myriad questions of the officials there.

Serbia-Montenegro’s Ambassador to South Korea Zoran Veljic said, "The industrial complex is structured properly and operating energetically."

Norwegian Ambassador Arild Braastad, who is also ambassador to Pyongyang, remarked, "The two Koreas seem to hold a similar evaluation of the Kaesong project, and they also have the same anticipation in its potential. It will be useful for the two countries to push ahead with these projects that steadily aim for peaceful coexistence."

Valeriu Arteni, the ambassador from Romania, noted, "Projects like the Kaesong Industrial Complex will be able to change the North Koreans’ way of thinking." Jorge Bayona Medina, Peruvian ambassador to Korea, echoed Ambassador Arteni’s sentiments, saying, "What [North Korean workers at Kaesong] see and feel here will spread to Pyongyang and across North Korea."

The biggest figure of interest among the group was U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, as some in Washington have spoken out against the Kaesong complex, saying that workers’ wages are below international standards and that the North Korean economy should not be aided.

Ambassador Vershbow asked Kim Ki-hong, Kaesong branch manager of Woori Bank, if the Northern laborers receive their wages through Woori Bank. Mr. Kim replied that his branch dealt only with companies from the South. Ambassador Vershbow did not inquire further.

Asked if the United States is willing to support the Kaesong project by Kim Hyo-jeong, one of the North Korean guides, Ambassador Vershbow answered, "It is a very complicated question. I have seen a lot of U.S.-made equipment being used here." When reporters asked the ambassador’s impression of his visit to Kaesong, he said, "It was very interesting and useful, and I learned many things."

According to the U.S. ambassador, talks are underway to organize a visit to Kaesong by Jay Lefkowitz, Washington’s point man on North Korean human rights, in July. As for the possibility of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill visiting Kaesong, Mr. Vershbow told reporters, "Not in the short term, but maybe some time in the future."