Electronic passage at Kaesong to begin this month

SEOUL - Electronic passage of South Korean workers to and from the inter-Korean factory park in Kaesong, the border town in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), will be made possible later this month, the South Korean unification ministry said Monday.

Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Eui-do told a routine press briefing that construction of the radio frequency identification ( RFID) system at the Kaesong industrial complex, which had been launched on December 11, 2013, was expected to be completed within this week.

The spokesman said that the daily passage of South Korean entrepreneurs to and from the Kaesong factory park was expected to be made possible in late January after test-running the electronic passage system for 1-2 weeks.

Currently, South Korea should fax a list of workers to the DPRK a day before their trip to the joint industrial zone. The DPRK has allowed only those on the list to visit the factory park during a designated time.

The electronic passage system would allow South Korean workers to visit the factory park and return home at any time on days when they are permitted to visit the site.

The Kaesong industrial complex, the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation, is home to 120 South Korean small companies that produce mostly labor-intensive products such as shoes and garments.

Introducing the RFID system was expected to help resume the stalled talks on holding an investor relations (IR) session for foreign investors. The two Koreas originally agreed to hold such investment briefing on October 31, but rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula delayed the process.

South Korea offered last month again to the DPRK to hold the IR session within this month, but Pyongyang had to make a specific response yet.

The spokesman said that Seoul would consult with Pyongyang on the IR session for foreign investors in case that progress is made in the related issues such as the RFID system and customs process.