I find it hard to feel sorry for this businesses that knew what they were getting themselves into in order to take advantage of near slave labor to make profits. Their gamble ultimately did not pay off so why should the South Korean taxpayer be on the hook to completely bail them out of their losses?:
Chung Ki-seop (L), a joint head of an emergency committee for 124 South Korean firms that once operated in Kaesong, speaks in a special meeting with Rep. Woo Sang-ho (2nd from L), floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, held in Seoul on Jan. 12, 2017. (Yonhap)
It will have been a year since they were forced to leave their workplace in North Korea’s border town of Kaesong this week, but nearly half of the firms that were once celebrated as symbols of reconciliation with the communist North are now struggling just to stay alive.
The 124 South Korean firms were told by their own government to leave the joint industrial complex a year ago Friday.
The unexpected shutdown of the joint complex followed a series of military provocations from the North that included a nuclear test in January 2016. (……..)
He said the total damage suffered by all 124 firms came to at least 1.5 trillion won (US$1.31 billion).
The amount includes some 840 billion won in fixed and floating assets left behind in Kaesong, such as equipment and raw materials, as well as 150 billion won the firms had to pay in penalties or damage to their contractors and buyers for breached contracts.
Their combined losses stemming from reduced sales also came to 314.7 billion won in 2016 alone, the committee said.
The government, however, has compensated them 483.8 billion won, only 32 percent of the damage suffered by the firms, it added.
“The government has only provided some 359 billion won in compensation for investment assets in Kaesong and 125 billion won for floating assets, but refuses to provide any support for loss of business, the penalties the firms had to pay or any other damage stemming from the shutdown,” an official from the emergency committee said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. [Yonhap]
It appears South Korea’s efforts to jam North Korea’s AM radio propaganda broadcasts has been successful:
Echo of Unification (통일의메아리방송), a North Korean radio station that broadcasts propaganda towards South Korea, dropped all mediumwave (AM band) broadcasting on December 21.
The move seemingly confirms the futility of the broadcasts, which consumed large amounts of electricity but were blocked by powerful South Korean government jamming transmitters, but the station isn’t giving up. In their place, it has brought on air additional shortwave and FM transmitters.
It’s all part of a game that’s been going on for decades. North and South Korea both broadcast propaganda at each other while trying to stop their own citizens from hearing the other’s broadcast. Similar battles used to be played out across borders around the world but have largely moved to the internet and social media. The lack of internet in North Korea and South Korean censorship mean radio still plays a part on the Korean peninsula. [North Korea Tech]
Two Koreas, same day. In NK, soldiers bow to dead dictators. In SK, citizens peacefully protest against their president. Dec 17, 2016. pic.twitter.com/m97qAbZpF7
It seems the ROK should just bring the fishermen to Panmunjom and let them cross over the border there even if the North Koreans don’t communicate back to them:
Eight North Korean fishermen spent weeks lost at sea. Now they’re adrift in a diplomatic limbo.
The fishermen all said they wanted to go home after being rescued by South Korean maritime police earlier this week, but Seoul has been unable to reach the other side to arrange their return, officials said.
The case offers an unusual glimpse into the communication methods used between the two enemies, which are divided by the world’s most heavily fortified border and remain technically at war.
When the North Koreans didn’t pick up the phone, the South resorted to a form of shouting: broadcasting the request across the Demilitarized Zone via loudspeakers. [Stars & Stripes]
The South Korean government has now responded to North Korea’s invasion drill:
South Korean officials were quick to condemn the movements.
“(We) view the drill from yesterday as a childish act to display that their system is undiminished, in response to our internal situation,” South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said.
“Kim Jong Un has been continuously visiting its military units since November and it has been escalating tension. We strongly condemn it.” [CNN]
North Korea’s cyber warfare teams apparently have hacked into South Korea’s cyber command:
North Korea appears to have hacked South Korea’s cyber command in what could be the latest cyberattack against Seoul, the military here said Tuesday, .
“It seems the intranet server of the cyber command has been contaminated with malware. We found that some military documents, including confidential information, have been hacked,” an official at the Ministry of National Defense told Yonhap News Agency. He said that authorities suspect North Korea is behind the latest online infiltrations.
The cyber command said it isolated the affected server from the whole network to avoid the spread of viruses. But it has yet to fully determine what data were leaked.
It marked the first time that the data of South Korea’s cyber command has been compromised. South Korea set up the command in January 2010 as part of its efforts to counter external hacking attempts on the country’s military. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but the article says that classified information may have been stolen.
For people familiar with the Roh Moo-hyun years of the Korean government, this latest revelation should not come as any surprise:
Presidential candidate Moon Jae-in has been embroiled in a controversy over an ex-foreign minister’s claim that he supported a recommendation to seek Pyongyang’s opinion on a 2007 U.N. resolution on North Korea’s human rights situation ahead of a vote.
Song Min-soon, who served as foreign minister for President Roh Moo-hyun, said in his memoir published last week that South Korea abstained from the vote after listening to Pyongyang’s opposition.
Song claimed that the proposal to seek the North’s opinion was backed by Moon, then Roh’s presidential chief of staff, amid divided opinions among Cabinet members.
The recently surfaced claim soon instigated political sparring between rival parties. The ruling Saenuri Party called for an investigation to get to the bottom of the issue, accusing Moon of having virtually been “in league with” the North. [Korea Times]
