Korea Checkpoints #2: The Kaesong Industrial Complex

The first bit of post-crisis peninsular rapprochement is slow going so far. The Kaesong Joint Industrial Complex in Kaesong, just on the North Korean side of the DMZ, saw over 50,000 North Korean workers employed by South Korean firms until the DPRK shut it down in April.

Both governments want to reopen Kaesong, but the Park administration wants assurances to avoid future shutdowns, while the DPRK wants to reopen the complex immediately and without preconditions. Talks between the two aren't making much progress, if any.

The the North's urgency is understandable. The Kaesong complex is not only a major employer, but also a major source of foreign capital for the cash-strapped regime. For wealthy South Korea, Kaesong is a political symbol and trust-building tool, not a vital economic project.

Here we see a tangible, rather than just rhetorical, policy difference emerging between Park's Saenuri Party and the Democratic Party. The Democrats more or less agree with the DPRK on the issue of the complex, calling on Park to "separate economics from politics" and work to reopen Kaesong immediately.

And finally, a uniquely Korean quirk: the negotiating team for Kim Jong-un's government is led by a Mr. Park, and the corresponding delegation from the Park administration is headed up by a Mr. Kim.