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A Korean thaw?
Bordering on comradely
A coup for Park Geun-hyeand for North Korean coffers
Aug 24th 2013 | SEOUL |From the print edition

The pity of cold war

WHEN an April tantrum led North Korea to withdraw its 53,000 workers from the Kaesong industrial
complex and expel the managers of the 100-odd South Korean firms, it was curtains for the only surviving
product of years of attempts by South Korea to work with the North. The regime in Pyongyang claimed its
move was out of pique at military exercisesattack rehearsals, it called themthat South Korea was
conducting with America. In fact, it was all of a piece with North Korean provocations that had run for
months and included a nuclear test in February.
Since then, it has looked as if Kaesong would never reopenand good riddance, many in South Korea
clearly thought. First opened in 2004, the enclave of capitalist enterprise houses mainly small-sized textile
and electronics factories. The South kept Kaesong on life support, supplying electricity and water and two
meals a day to workers. Firms paid around $140 per worker each month, but they paid it to the state, which
pocketed a big chunk. Despite the cheap labour, few owners made money there.
Yet on August 14th, after seven rounds of talks, both sides agreed to reopen the complex. Four days later
came another breakthrough: after three years of suspension, North Korea also agreed to restart temporary
reunions for families separated for decades by the Koreas division and the tragedy of the Korean war. On
August 20th the South said it would also talk about the possibility of once more allowing South Korean visits
to the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang (out of bounds to North Koreans). Visits were ended in 2008
when a North Korean soldier shot dead a tourist strolling on the beach.
Eternal optimists see these moves as a precursor to reviving the six-party talks meant to get North Korea to
dismantle its nuclear-weapons programme. Kaesong, says Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor in North Korean studies
at Korea University in Seoul, is the one remaining window for talk. Hwang Seung-hee of the unification

ministry says that, once both sides finalise the Kaesong deal, setting up family reunions will be quick and
easy.
The North Koreans about-turn probably reflects a realisation of how badly it needs the hard cash. But Peter
Beck of the Asia Foundation also senses North Koreas desire to loosen its economic dependence on China.
Why the conservative government of South Koreas new president, Park Geun-hye, should be so keen on
Kaesong is more puzzling. True, the agreement supposedly ensures that North Korea no longer uses Kaesong
as a political bargaining chipthough whether such a guarantee is worth the paper it is written on is another
matter. Meanwhile, Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst, thinks the joint undertaking never to shut the zone
in future risks hobbling the government in Seoul.
For now, Mr Yoo argues, it is all an endorsement of Ms Parks trustpolitik, a fuzzy notion for building
confidence across the border. Part of it involves breaking the Norths bad old habits of negotiation:
confrontation, conversation, compensation. Fine, but what if North Korea pockets the compensation and
then starts the confrontation all over again?
From the print edition: Asia