Koreas kick off first Kaesong joint panel talks

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea on Monday began the first meeting of their joint committee on creating guidelines for progressive development of a suspended factory park in the communist country and set a timetable for its full reopening. The meeting that began at 10 a.m. comes after the two sides agreed to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex on Aug. 14 and inked a deal to create a new joint committee last Thursday. The committee is made up of four sub-committees, and a permanent secretariat will be in charge of running the industrial park that remains the main economic link between the two countries. Before the suspension of operations in early April, the Kaesong park was home to 123 South Korean factories and over 53,000 North Korean laborers. Pyongyang unilaterally pulled out its workers citing heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The joint committee, which gives Seoul equal say in the running of the complex, will prevent Pyongyang from disrupting operations in the future. The Ministry of Unification in charge of all inter-Korean relations said that the meeting held at a Kaesong complex support center in the North will concentrate on when to restart operations that have been shuttered for nearly five months. Seoul has maintained that top priority must be given to preventing disruption to the normal business activities and to make changes to operating procedures to give the park international competitiveness. The ministry said that opening the complex can take place after such deliberations have made headway. Reflecting this view Kim Ki-woong, Seoul's chief delegate, who is leading the five-person team, said before he left for the North earlier in the day, that every effort will be made so South Korean companies can do business in Kaesong without worries and to allow the factory park to become internationally competitive. "The aim (of the talks) is to allow Kaesong to be reborn and to make it possible for foreign companies to set up operations there if they desire," the official said. The North, on the other hand, has persistently called for an immediate opening and cited that many South Korean companies have already stated they can open factories this month. Besides touching on guidelines and when the park may open, the two sides will deliberate on when the four sub-committees in charge of regulating and overseeing the movement of people, investment protection, communications and customs, and international competitiveness will hold their separate meetings and the joint secretariat will be created. North Korean watchers in Seoul said that if the talks make headway, the complex may partially open, but if no progress is made, it may take time before operations resume. The ministry, meanwhile, said that 615 businessmen and engineers from South Korean companies are in Kaesong to look over facilities and work with North Korean workers to prepare their businesses for reopening. All will return later in the day. yonngong@yna.co.kr (END)