International Community's concerns over the exemption of the sanction on GIC

Concerns regarding diversion of GIC workers' wages to nuclear development → No direct evidence

In the international community, there is the worried perception that wages paid to GIC workers ($100 million per year) might be used to fund North Korea's nuclear development.

The ROK government investigation (Policy Reform Committee at the Ministry of Unification, December 2017) could uncover no direct evidence of regime misappropriation of wages

North Korean workers actually got 70% of their wages.

※ The 30% of the wages were verified as free medical, education, compensation, and pension funds. North Korean workers' wages are the level of living expenses for a family of four.

There is need not only for South Korea and the US, but also for North Korea to join in deliberating solutions such as a direct payment system making use of escrow accounts

Concern that re-opening the GIC may constitute violation of sanctions → Market Economy System Propagation

Concern that re-opening the GIC would violate US and UN sanctions

The US Code on North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement (§9228) clearly indicates that conditions for sanctions exemption can be met by activity that promotes the free flow of information into and out of North Korea,* and progress toward the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula under a democratic system of government

* Generally used to mean the introduction into North Korea of external information pertaining to democracy and capitalism (see exhibition 3)

By giving North Korean workers a first-hand look at the free life enjoyed by South Koreans, entrepreneurs at the GIC can contribute more effectively to the flow of information than other media or methods

Through the joint North and South Korean process of developing the laws and institutions related to the GIC, the free-market system that governs South Korean businesses and the management of the complex can be passed on to North Korea in a natural manner

Concern regarding slave labor for North Korean workers in the GIC → Jobs and human rights issues

Concern that North Korean workers at the GIC were working as slaves

working hours in accordance with international standards, payment of allowances for overtime work, proper working environment (providing lunch and shower facilities, guaranteeing leisure time and weekend rest)

“Gaeseong industrial park should be reopened regardless of sanctions, as tens of thousands of North Korean workers suffer from jobs lost, which also cuts access to adequate health care and food”
By Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea (June 21st, 2019)

South Korean SMEs' position in regard to sanctions exemption for the GIC

Agreement with the need for strong sanctions in response to nuclear tests and other North Korean provocations that pose a threat to peace

But inasmuch as Chairman Kim Jong Un has repeatedly expressed his intention to carry out denuclearization, there exists a show of receptiveness on the part of the international community is called for.

In addition, there is no problem in strategic items management, as the machinery and raw materials are brought into North Korea under the South Korean government's permission to check if they are strategic items.

Exempting the GIC from sanctions is necessary in order to lead North Korea into the international community without relaxing the sanctions regime as a whole.

South Korean citizens are of the same opinion;* should North Korea engage in nuclear tests or other provocations after provision of this incentive, it would be necessary to resort to a "snap-back"**

* “62.4% of citizens : ‘Resumption of Mt Kumgang Tourism, GIC will aid in denuclearization of North." (National Unification Advisory Council, March 2019)

** Snap-back : Return to previous sanctions if given cause