The inter-Korean liaison office in North Korea’s border city of Kaesong is blown up by the North on June 16, 2020, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
SEOUL, June 18 (Korea Bizwire) – Staff members at Hyundai Asan Corp., the company that pioneered inter-Korean commercial ties, let out a long sigh when the liaison office building was destroyed by North Korean authorities on Wednesday.
Hyundai Asan received 10 billion won (US$8.2 million) to renovate the inter-Korean liaison office in Sept. 2018.
The company was in charge of managing the office as recently as January, when it was forced to pull out due to the coronavirus.
Ironically, the day the office building was destroyed was exactly 22 years after the late Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung visited North Korea, steering a herd of 501 cows.
“Our expectations weren’t that high after the U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi last year ended with no particular results, but it was definitely a shock to see the North take down the building,” a company source said.
Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun and management staff were reportedly shocked by the news, despite the fact they had expected some kind of reaction from North Korea following the recent tension in the relationship between the two Koreas.
Moreover, an announcement from the General Staff of the (North) Korean People’s Army on Wednesday that it would redeploy military units to the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mount Kumgang tourist zone has added to the concerns among staff at Hyundai Asan.
North Korea’s state broadcaster Korean Central Television reported that leader Kim Jong-un asked that his military “take out all South Korean facilities that disgust me just by looking at them” last October during his visit to Mount Kumgang.
This file photo, taken in September 2018, shows the inter-Korean joint liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. (Yonhap)
Discussions on razing South Korean facilities in Mount Kumgang are currently paused due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Hyundai Asan believes that inter-Korean exchanges won’t come around for some time.
“The current mood is expected to continue until the U.S. presidential election in November of this year,” a source from the Asan Institute for Policy Studies said.
Hyundai Asan acquired exclusive rights from North Korea to use the land at Mount Kumgang as well as infrastructure in 2000.
However, turbulent inter-Korean relations have deprived the company from making any profit or even recouping its original investment.
Hyundai Group so far has invested 923 billion won for the Mount Kumgang tour program, and 602 billion won in the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
Mount Kumgang tours came to a halt in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean guard. South Korea closed the Kaesong Industrial Complex in 2016 in retaliation against the North’s nuclear and missile provocations.
Hyundai Group has been speeding up preparations to begin new exchange projects following the inter-Korean summit in 2018, all of which have now been sidelined indefinitely.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
