SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has decided to allow its businesspeople to visit their factories at an industrial park in North Korea that was shut down by Seoul’s previous conservative government in 2016 following a North Korean nuclear test. Seoul also said on Friday it will push ahead with plans to provide $8 million worth of humanitarian aid to North Korea through international organizations, a proposal it first made in 2017. Lee Sang-min, spokesman of Seoul’s Unification Ministry, said it plans to discuss with North Korean officials details for the South Korean visits to the factories at the North Korean border town of Kaesong, where the Koreas also operate a liaison office. He downplayed speculation that Seoul was trying to build momentum toward reopening the factory park, which provided badly needed cash for the North before its closure in February 2016. Since the Trump-Kim meeting in February ended with no results, Pyongyang has demanded Seoul break away from Washington to resume operations at the Kaesong factory park as well as South Korean tours to the North’s Diamond Mountain resort.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer May 17, 2019 10:30 UTC