Anchor: Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae took aim at North Korea on Wednesday, saying angrily that the Gaeseong Industrial Complex situation isn't going to simply normalize as if nothing happened. Ryoo’s remark came after Pyongyang urged Seoul earlier this week to allow South Korean business people to visit the suspended inter-Korean venture in the North.
Our Kim Soyon reports.

Report: Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae blasted North Korea with strong language Wednesday, saying Pyongyang is again employing the familiar tactic of attempting to divide the South Korean government from its civic sector.

Ryoo made the remarks while giving a lecture at a Korean Peninsula economic forum in Seoul. He said Pyongyang is trying to crawl back in and sweep the issue of the suspended Gaeseong Industrial Complex under the rug as if nothing happened. He stressed Seoul has no intention of being dragged into North Korea’s so-called tactics or strategy.

The minister said even if complex operations resume as the North claims they will by allowing South Korean businesspeople and management committee officials back into the complex, things cannot go back to the way they were. He said it will only rewind the situation back to before March 27th when North Korea cut off the inter-Korean military hotline, and nothing that happened between then and May third will go away. During that time, North Korean workers were pulled out of the industrial park leaving South Koreans there alone without proper food and medical supplies.

Ryoo said if the Seoul government allows this to happen, the decision would be mocked by the international community, and the vision to globalize the Gaeseong complex will become a far-fetched plan. He asked for understanding from the companies with factories at the complex saying Seoul must think of the nation as a whole and cannot only consider the difficulties faced by the businesses in Gaeseong.

The minister went on to say that North Korean policy-makers were wrong if they thought they could toy with the Gaeseong complex to achieve Pyongyang’s goals with the United States.

Ryoo also cited differences between the current and previous administrations, saying the Park Geun-hye government doesn’t conduct policies with denuclearization as the stated goal. He said the issue of denuclearization will eventually emerge as inter-Korean talks proceed, but it won’t be declared as an overarching goal from the very beginning of cross-border relations.

Kim Soyon, KBS World Radio News.