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Opposition party's floor leader calls for special law to reopen
By KH디지털2Published : Feb. 17, 2016 - 10:51
The floor leader of South Korea's main opposition Minjoo Party vowed Wednesday to enact a special law to reopen the troubled inter-Korean joint factory park at the center of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea has shuttered the factory park in the North's western border city of Kaesong as part of its measures to punish North Korea for its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.
In return, North Korea expelled all South Koreans from the economic enclave and froze South Korean assets there.
The tit-for-tat move doomed the last-remaining economic cooperation project between the two Koreas, which are technically still at war.
"The Minjoo Party will enact a special law to revive the Kaesong Industrial Complex," Lee Jong-kul said in a speech at the National Assembly.
Currently, the opposition party cannot unilaterally pass any bill as it has only 108 seats in the 293-member parliament, though its chance of approving a special bill could go up if it wins a sweeping victory in the upcoming elections.
South Koreans are set to go to the polls in April to elect new lawmakers.
A recent poll released by Yonhap News Agency and public broadcaster KBS showed that 54.4 percent of those polled are in favor of the government's decision to shut down the factory park.
Still, Lee championed the factory park, describing it as a hope that could breathe new life into South Korea's economy at a time when South Korea cannot find momentum for future growth.
The shutdown is like "removing a safety pin that prevented a full-scale armed conflict," Lee said.
The sprawling project had served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped North, while South Korea has benefited from cheap but skilled North Korean labor.
On Tuesday, President Park Geun-hye strongly suggested that most of $560 million South Korea provided in cash to North Korea for their factory park ended up in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
Lee also called on the government to carefully review other options in national defense before deploying an advanced U.S. missile defense system in the country.
South Korea and the U.S. have unveiled their plan to bring a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery into South Korea to counter North Korea's short-to-medium-range missile threats.
"THAAD deployment should be based on the merit of the national interest," Lee said. (Yonhap)
South Korea has shuttered the factory park in the North's western border city of Kaesong as part of its measures to punish North Korea for its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.
In return, North Korea expelled all South Koreans from the economic enclave and froze South Korean assets there.
The tit-for-tat move doomed the last-remaining economic cooperation project between the two Koreas, which are technically still at war.
"The Minjoo Party will enact a special law to revive the Kaesong Industrial Complex," Lee Jong-kul said in a speech at the National Assembly.
Currently, the opposition party cannot unilaterally pass any bill as it has only 108 seats in the 293-member parliament, though its chance of approving a special bill could go up if it wins a sweeping victory in the upcoming elections.
South Koreans are set to go to the polls in April to elect new lawmakers.
A recent poll released by Yonhap News Agency and public broadcaster KBS showed that 54.4 percent of those polled are in favor of the government's decision to shut down the factory park.
Still, Lee championed the factory park, describing it as a hope that could breathe new life into South Korea's economy at a time when South Korea cannot find momentum for future growth.
The shutdown is like "removing a safety pin that prevented a full-scale armed conflict," Lee said.
The sprawling project had served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped North, while South Korea has benefited from cheap but skilled North Korean labor.
On Tuesday, President Park Geun-hye strongly suggested that most of $560 million South Korea provided in cash to North Korea for their factory park ended up in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
Lee also called on the government to carefully review other options in national defense before deploying an advanced U.S. missile defense system in the country.
South Korea and the U.S. have unveiled their plan to bring a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery into South Korea to counter North Korea's short-to-medium-range missile threats.
"THAAD deployment should be based on the merit of the national interest," Lee said. (Yonhap)
