……The industrial park was born out of inter-Korean wishes to create a win-win model that would promote not only economic cooperation, but also bilateral reconciliation. Although politics has, at times, posed hurdles to these goals, the park has helped enhance ― or at least maintain ― cross-border exchanges, a crucial element of the inter-Korean trust-building.
“The park has helped the two Koreas restore their connections for cooperation, which had been cut due to the national division,” said Huh Moon-young, a senior fellow at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification. “The complex also encouraged a gradual change in the North and helped the two build trust.”
For the cash-strapped Pyongyang, the industrial complex was a reliable source of foreign currency, particularly at a time when the international community imposes tough sanctions against it for its nuclear and missile development. The North currently rakes in some $87 million for the annual salaries of its workers.
……For the pilot operations of the inter-Korean complex in 2004, there were only 15 South Korean firms with several thousand North Korean workers. Now, 125 firms are operating there with around 52,000 North Korean workers producing textiles, shoes, clothes, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods.
In line with the increase in the number of factories and personnel, the production amount had surged to $469.5 million, a 31-fold increase from $14.91 million in 2005, although the production sharply declined last year due to the temporary shutdown.
The total amount of the production over the last decade amounts to more than $2.3 billion.
Physical conditions for South Korean entrepreneurs have also improved much. A decade ago, employers had difficulty doing business there due to an unstable supply of electricity, water and even food.
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