North Korea is apparently in a bind over what to do with tens of thousands of workers suddenly out of work due to the shutdown of the factory zone, analysts here said Friday.
North Korea expelled all South Korean nationals on Thursday from the Gaesong Industrial Complex in the North’s border city of the same name and froze factory assets by South Korean firms in retaliation for Seoul’s decision to shut down the complex.
South Korea shut down the industrial park in response to the North’s latest nuke test and long-range rocket launch, bringing an end to the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation.
More than 54,000 North Korean workers were employed by 124 South Korean firms at the zone, some 50 kilometers northwest of Seoul.
Experts said that North Korea would seek measures to prevent the now-unemployed North Koreans from showing any agitation such as relocating them to other areas.
“If the shutdown of the complex is prolonged, North Korean workers in Gaesong may express complaints, which could serve as a destabilizing factor for the North,” said Kim Young-soo, a professor at Sogang University. “The North may try to relocate those who experienced capitalism to other areas.”
About 300,000 North Koreans are believed to be living in Gaesong, about 1.2 percent of the North’s total population. Around 30 percent of the North Korean workers at the factory zone are presumed to have come from Pyongyang, according to experts.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, said that the North may seek to put some skilled workers in factories that it can operate.
“North Korea may try to run factories at the Gaesong complex on its own,” Cheong said. “It could send workers to mills in other areas if the North tries to move equipment from the complex there.”
The North said it has closed the complex and designated it a military-controlled zone, casting a cloud over the possibility of the resumption of the operation.
“Given that Gaesong has a geographical meaning as a city near the inter-Korean border, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could unveil special measures to boost the livelihood of people there,”
said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University. (Yonhap)
