The Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea is seen in this file photo. All operations in the joint venture between the two Koreas have been stopped since 2016 when Seoul decided to close the complex. Yonhap



S. Korea says businesses with NK going under economic sanctions frame



By Yi Whan-woo



South Korea's foreign ministry said Wednesday it was talking with the United States to possibly obtain sanctions relief for North Korea, though the ministry didn't specify when the relief would happen.



"The ministry is in discussions with the United States to get the go-ahead for partial sanctions relief, which will be helpful for South Korea to push forward the country's business projects, most of which are non-commercial, with North Korea. But the South has no plans to violate U.N. sanctions now being imposed on the North," said a ministry official.



The official added the U.N. Security Council's actions would support and conform to the efforts of diplomatic talks toward denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.



At the Singapore summit in June between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Trump said economic sanctions will be maintained until Pyongyang's nuclear program is "no longer a problem."



The remarks came after Seoul began supplying power to the liaison office located inside the joint industrial park in Gaeseong, North Korea. Seoul's unification ministry said South Korea seeks to run the office within this month in consultation with the U.S. and the allies.



It also said the power supply will be limited to the joint liaison office, not the entire Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC), and that its measure should not be seen as a sign of easing the U.S.-led international sanctions on Pyongyang.



The measure however, raised suspicions whether South Korea will be walking a tightrope between abiding by the sanctions and seeking exemptions from the sanctions to help the impoverished Pyongyang regime.



The GIC has been shut down since February 2016 in line with international efforts to better press North Korea over its nuclear program and ensure Pyongyang will not exploit loopholes of the sanctions.



The progressive government of Moon Jae-in has sought exemptions from the sanctions amid a thaw on the Korean Peninsula.



They include sending a chartered flight to the North for joint ski training and allowing a North Korean ferry to enter a South Korean port as parts of preparations for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February.



"We've not heard from the U.S. yet but we believe its operation should not be much of a problem. This is because the purpose of the liaison office is a dialogue channel, nothing more or less," said an official at the unification ministry.



Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the GIC office is not in violation of the sanctions. He pointed out that electricity is generated in the South and therefore it can be cut off at any time.



"Seoul has control over the supply of power and this makes it impossible for Pyongyang to attempt to use and exploit it for its nuclear program," he said.



The two Koreas agreed to re-run the GIC office during the summit between their leaders on April 27.



South Korea first sought to bring in an electric generator and crude oil to the GIC and produce electricity on site. But it scrapped the plan because of the heavy costs and possible controversy surrounding the sanctions.



"It should be made clear that the power supply has nothing to do with resuming the joint industrial park. This is solely for efficient management of the liaison office and the convenience of our officials who will work there," the unification ministry said.



The progressive minded politicians have been calling for resuming operations of the GIC, which served as a symbol of cross-border reconciliation after it opened in 2004.



The shutdown of the GIC incurred heavy economic losses on 124 tenant companies _ all of them small- and medium-sized enterprises whose assets were seized by North Korea.

