- Title: SOUTH KOREA: Kaesong company owners welcome North Korea's talk invite
- Date: 7th June 2013
- Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (JUNE 7, 2013) (REUTERS) **CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY** VIEW OF SOUTH KOREAN BUSINESSMEN FROM ASSOCIATION OF FIRMS IN KAESONG INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX SITTING IN MEETING ROOM VARIOUS OF BUSINESSMEN SITTING IN MEETING ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) SOUTH KOREAN HEAD OF THE ASSOCIATION OF FIRMS IN THE KAESONG INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX HAN JAE-KWON SAYING: "We welcome th
- Embargoed: 22nd June 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Korea, Republic of
- Country: South Korea
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA603TMOFDH73UIHXOYKZ5KAWGP
- Story Text: Kaesong company owners and workers welcome North Korea's offer to hold a working-level talks with South Korea over the suspended industrial complex, while some Seoul residents are skeptical about the reclusive states offer.
Kaesong company owners and workers on Friday (June 7) welcomed North Korea's offer to hold a working-level talk over the suspended industrial complex, jointly ran by two Koreas.
Earlier in the day, the North said it would reopen a Red Cross hotline with the South and invited officials from Seoul to talks over the weekend.
On Thursday (June 6), North Korea proposed talks to normalise commercial projects, including the Kaesong industrial zone it shut down at the height of tensions in early April.
"We welcome that a forum for talks about the normalization of the Kaesong Industrial Complex has been offered, as South and North Korean workers have suffered from the loss of jobs due to the Kaesong Industrial Complex's temporary suspension," said South Korean head of the Association of companies in the Kaesong Industrial Complex Han Jae-kwon.
"We urge the South and North Korean governments to promise that the same incident would never happen again under any political and diplomatic circumstances." Han added.
Pyongyang's moves come ahead of a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday in California. North Korea's actions, including its latest nuclear test in February and threats to attack South Korea and the United States, are likely to be high on the agenda.
North Korea also said it would reopen the Red Cross hotline, which was shut in March, but another hotline, used by military officials, remains shut.
The two Koreas have not held talks since February 2011.
South Korean people expressed mixed opinions on the North's invite for talks.
"I think North Korea is genuinely trying to have talks so that it won't be isolated from the international society. Also they've got financial problems," said 47-year-old Seoul resident Jun Seo-hong.
Some were skeptical about the reclusive neigbour's sudden proposal to talk.
"It was North Korea, who forced to withdraw everything from the Kaesong Industrial Complex. Now I see the North is suddenly taking a submissive attitude, I feel like it has a secret intention," said 45-year-old Seoul resident Ahn Hyo-jung.
South Korea has proposed cabinet level talks on June 12 in Seoul to discuss a range of issues including commercial projects and families separated during the 1950-53 Korean War.
In response, Pyongyang invited South Korea to a working-level meeting on Sunday in the border city of Kaesong, where South Korean companies employed 53,000 North Korean workers to make cheap household goods until Pyongyang ordered it closed.
Tensions escalated on the peninsula after the United Nations imposed new sanctions on North Korea for its Feb. 12 nuclear test, the country's third. North Korea also claimed that two months of joint U.S.-South Korean military drills that ended in late April were a prelude to an invasion. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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