SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Wednesday announced financial aid for 123 South Korean factories left stranded in an industrial zone in North Korea as the North showed no signs of allowing the complex to reopen.
North Korea on April 9 pulled all its 53,000 workers out of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, located in the North Korean town of the same name, out of anger over joint U.S.-South Korean military drills. It also blocked South Korean managers and supplies from entering the joint factory park.
The moves raised doubts over the future of the complex, the last remaining symbol of economic ties between the two Koreas, and pushed some of the South Korean companies that owned factories there to the brink of bankruptcy.
The financial assistance announced Wednesday included $8 billion in special loans and $14.3 million in bank loans whose repayments will be postponed with government help. The companies will also get tax relief and unemployment allowances if any of their South Korean workers are laid off because of the trouble in Kaesong.
