ROK, DPRK open Kaesong committee secretariat

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday opened a permanent committee secretariat on Kaesong complex to prevent work stoppage of the inter-Korean factory park, Yonhap news agency quoted the unification ministry as saying.

The newly launched committee, consisted of both officials from the ROK and the DPRK, gives Seoul an equal say on the zone, which had been managed solely by Pyongyang in the past.

The secretariat will provide administrative support to the joint committee and four subcommittees, officials said, adding that eight officials from the ROK and five from the DPRK will be assigned to the secretariat initially.

The two sides decided to set up this secretariat in mid-August as part of agreements considered as a milestone for reopening the Kaesong complex.

Seoul and Pyongyang also agreed to hold the first investor relation (IR) event in Kaesong on October 31 to encourage foreign companies to invest into the reopened factory park just north of the heavily armed border.

The jointly operated factory park in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong was reopened on Sept 16 after suspending for five months. Around 90 ROK's firms with factories in Kaesong conducted their trial run the previous day, and 32,000 DPRK workers reported to work.

The Kaesong industrial zone, where 123 ROK's companies run factories, came to a halt in early April when the DPRK pulled out all of its 53,000 workers from Kaesong in protest against the joint annual military exercises between Washington and Seoul.