Seoul may do repairs on the road to Kaesong

The South Korean government is considering repairing flood-damaged roads linking North Korea’s border city of Kaesong to the nearby inter-Korean industrial park, officials said yesterday.

The roads used by commuter buses for nearly 50,000 North Korean workers employed by South Korean firms at the Kaesong Industrial Complex were reportedly damaged in this summer’s torrential rains.

“We understand the government is considering improving North Korean roads leading to the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” a South Korean official working there said.

The official said that an on-site survey of the roads was already conducted last summer by the Kaesong Industrial Complex Management Committee, the South’s organization overseeing administrative affairs and management of facilities in the complex, and LH Corporation, South Korea’s state-run land developer participating in the development of the complex.

A source at Seoul’s Ministry of Unification also confirmed the plan.

“The government is mulling ways to repair roads in the Kaesong region because many of them were damaged in heavy rains this year,” a ministry official said, requesting not to be named. “We need to consult with the North because the work involves repairing of roads inside Kaesong.”

The repair, if conducted, will likely involve work to restore damaged paved sections and fill in holes on unpaved roads with soil, the official said.

The complex, a key symbol of rapprochement between the two Koreas, combines the South’s technology and management expertise with the North’s cheap labor.

Yonhap