There is no time to cry over spilled milk. The Park administration has taken retaliatory action against North Korea’s long-range missile provocation following a nuclear test. It chose to close down the Gaeseong industrial complex.
The government announcement Wednesday was a surprise to the South Korean public, whose opinion is divided as to whether it is an effective countermeasure or a needless action adding to inter-Korean tensions.
Initially, the primary issue should be the security of the South’s workers in Gaeseong, a border city in the North. The government has to prioritize the safe withdrawal of the workforce and brace for their possible detainment by the North.
And the government should notify the public of its next policy when the North conducts a military provocation in retaliation for the industrial park shutdown.
The North might regard the action as a proclamation of war, though its leader Kim Jong-un is believed to have conducted a variety of wayward practices in a bid to bolster his foothold internally in alleged fear of a military coup.
Since the Lee Myung-bak administration, the military has been criticized for only verbally retaliating. Seoul has done nothing practical, despite a series of provocations by Pyongyang.
Some say there must be a limit in tolerating the practices involving the land mine incident, in which a South Korean solider lost one of his legs. As a result, the decision to pull out of Gaeseong is welcomed among a certain portion of the public.
Irrespective of the pros and cons over the Park administration’s declaration, we hope the government simultaneously makes full-fledged efforts to avoid armed conflict. Holding negotiations though inter-Korean dialogue should be pushed to curb the escalating tensions.
Observers say the latest event apparently incurred the wrath of President Park Geun-hye, who has repeatedly issued stern warnings, and thus brought about a sweeping turnaround in Seoul’s position given that the ministry had ruled out the possibility of a shutdown until the missile test.
Lying just north of the heavily fortified border, the complex has been a symbol of cross-border reconciliation, weathering political turbulence and a series of armed clashes. The 124 companies run factories and employ some 54,000 North Koreans.
The district suffered a four-month freeze in 2013, when Pyongyang abruptly barred the entry of South Koreans and pulled out its 53,000 workers in apparent fury over U.N. sanctions concerning its third nuclear test in February that year and Seoul-Washington military drills.
The sides had agreed to resume operations through marathon talks, but the North has since kept few of its promises to improve passage, communications and customs procedures as part of the “future-oriented normalization” measures.
