hankyoreh

South Koreans with business and other dealings in North Korea are once again excited about the prospects for better inter-Korean relations now that there appears to be something of a breakthrough on the North Korean nuclear issue.

"We don't get too sad or too overjoyed at what happens at the six-party talks," said Kim Yeong-su, an executive at Hyundai Asan, which has far more business concerns in the North than other Southern companies. "But just as a person becomes stronger after getting past a difficult period, I'm hopeful [the talks] will have a positive influence on business this year."

Companies with operations at the joint North-South Gaeseong (Kaesong) Industrial Park located just north of the border between the two Koreas are being "cautiously optimistic" about the business environment there, and are busy making preparations for additional sales of rights to lots in the industrial complex, a process that was postponed twice.

The Korea Land Corporation, which oversees land use at the Gaeseong complex, intends to offer approximately South Korean 150 companies sites on a total of 530,000 pyeong (pyeong = 3.3058 square meters) "in the very near future." The agency that directly manages the area says it will begin offering manufacturing "studios" at the end of February in an 8,000 pyeong building which has yet to be constructed. Construction at Gaeseong's new building sites is currently at the underground plumbing stage.

Kim Gi-mun, president of the watchmaker Romanson and head of an association of South Korean companies doing business in the North Korean city, said you can "succeed at Gaeseong Industrial Park as long as the mood for investment lives on." He said that his company and its affiliates there began with 250 North Korean employees but have since hired a total of 950. "They have learned the skills and the situation is a satisfactory one," he said.

JY Solutec president Kim Hak-kwon is satisfied, as well.

"Despite investing in Gaeseong early on, we have already broken even," he said. "Business between North and South Korea is going to become more brisk if the countries at the six-party talks make good on their promises."

Three of the 24 companies that signed up to do business in Gaeseong last year eventually withdrew their plans. Seven, however, including GoodPeople and CottonClub, already have their plants in operation and five have begun plant construction.

"My mind has been racing since the news from the six-party talks," said Park Yong-man, president of the clothing producer Rok-Sec Garments Co. "We had planned to start plant construction in August, but now we're going to speed things up and begin in March." The factory will be approximately 1,000 pyeong in scale and the company intends to hire 300 North Koreans.

Over on North Korea's east coast, meanwhile, there are plans to offer South Korean and foreign visitors participating in Mount Geumgang (Kumgang) area tours to also visit Naegeumgang, the western area to Mount Geumgang, as early as March or April. There are also plans to build an 18-hole golf course in the area. After a "test run" beginning in June, the golf course will open for visitors in October and is expected to be "price competitive" compared to South Korean golf courses.

"We had 11,000 visitors to Mount Geumgang in January, our normal amount, and we have twice the usual number of reservations for the upcoming Lunar New Year's holiday," said Hyunai Asan's No Ji-hwan. "The [North Korean] tour guides and employees who have been on absence since last November are returning one by one."

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