North and South Korea Agree to Reopen Kaesong Industry Park

TEMPO.CO, Seoul - North Korea and South Korea held talks and have agreed to take steps to reopen the jointly run Kaesong industrial park. This agreement was met after a marathon discussion by delegations from the two nations for 15 hours at the vilage of Panmunjom, located near the border between the two countries. 

Under the agreement, the two sides will conduct inspections of the facilities on Wednesday (July 10) and let South Korean businessmen retrieve finished goods and raw materials. The two Koreas also agreed to later discussions to prevent future shutdowns of the industrial park.  

The North will guarantee safe passage for the South Korean managers and their vehicles when they carry out the inspection, according to the agreement. 

"Most of the demands made by the South have been reflected in the agreement," said an unnamed official quoted by the South's Yonhap news agency. 

Previously, in protest to new international sanctions and the South ­Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, the North banned South Koreans from the Kaesong complex in April and withdrew its own 53,000 workers. Those workers were employed by 123 small- and medium-size South Korean companies, mostly producing textiles and electronics.

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