South Korea businessmen call for Kaesong deal on eve of last-ditch talks

South Korean businessmen called for the Koreas to strike a deal on the reopening of the Kaesong joint industrial zone, in a statement released on the eve of last-ditch talks.

The Kaesong complex, which houses 123 South Korean firms, has been closed since Pyongyang pulled its 53,000-strong workforce out in April as military tensions soared on the divided peninsula.

Six rounds of talks on resuming operations made no progress and a seventh round on Wednesday is being touted as a last-chance effort.

“This time, our government and the North’s authorities must reach agreement on reopening Kaesong without fail,” an association representing the owners of the South Korean companies in Kaesong said in a statement.

The owners have repeatedly complained that their livelihoods are being held hostage to the intransigence of both sides in the dispute.

Built in 2004 as a rare symbol of inter-Korean co-operation, Kaesong had survived previous cross-border political swings, but became the most high-profile victim of the tensions that followed Pyongyang’s nuclear test in February.