calendar>>May 23. 2016 Juche 105

S. Korean Authorities Urged to Restart KIZ

Pyongyang, May 23 (KCNA) -- The Consultative Council of Workers in the Kaesong Industrial Zone (KIZ), the Citizens Federation for Economic Justice, the Confederation of Trade Unions, the Federation of Trade Unions and other civic and public organizations of south Korea on May 19 held a news conference outside the "government" building in Seoul at which they demanded the south Korean authorities roll back the policy of antagonizing the fellow countrymen and restart the KIZ.

The organizations asserted that the damage caused by the shutdown of the KIZ are expanding to thousands of entrepreneurs as well as relevant ones of the zone, recalling it is 100 days since the shutdown of the KIZ.

They stressed that the "government" should pursue the policies of reconciliation and cooperation such as reopening the channel of dialogue between the north and south with the restart of the KIZ as a momentum and resuming nongovernmental exchange, noting that the only way of mending the relations between the south and the north is to make a dramatic switchover in its policy towards the north.

The chairman of the association of enterprises in the KIZ held a news conference on May 20 at which he declared with indignation that the south Korean authorities' shutdown of the KIZ brought misfortune and pain to south Koreans.