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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A hearth erupted at a now-shuttered inter-Korean industrial park in North Korea on Thursday, nevertheless it wasn’t instantly clear if any South Korean property was broken, officers stated.
The hearth was detected from a front-line South Korean observatory publish at about 2 p.m. and appeared to have been extinguished about an hour later, Seoul’s Unification Ministry stated.
The ministry, which oversees relations with rival North Korea, stated it would attempt to verify any harm on the advanced in Kaesong metropolis. North Korean state media didn’t instantly report the fireplace.
The commercial park, established in 2004 throughout a interval of warming ties between the divided Koreas, was as soon as seen as a check case for reunification as a result of it mixed South Korean expertise and knowhow with low-cost North Korean labor. The advanced’s operation was suspended in 2016 amid tensions over North Korea’s weapons program, leaving South Korean tools and different property deserted there.
South Korean businesspeople who ran corporations on the park have repeatedly expressed a want to go to the advanced due to issues in regards to the situation of equipment and manufacturing supplies left there. A deliberate go to accredited by the South Korean authorities in 2019 fell by way of after North Korea ignored the request.
In 2020, North Korea threatened to dismantle your entire manufacturing unit advanced, after which blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison workplace there.
South Korea has accused North Korea of destroying South Korean-owned services at one other dormant collectively operated venture — a resort at North Korea’s scenic Diamond Mountain the place they ran excursions collectively.
South Korean officers stated they haven’t detected indicators that North Korea is demolishing South Korean property on the Kaesong industrial park. South Korean media reported that authorities consider the fireplace at Kaesong wasn’t intentionally set.
Earlier Thursday, Kwon Younger-se, who has been nominated to be unification minister underneath South Korea’s incoming conservative authorities, stated the South ought to take a stronger stance towards North Korea over harm to South Korean property on the Kaesong park and Diamond Mountain resort.
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