Investors in suspended inter-Korean projects demand full gov't compensation
Published: 18 Nov. 2025, 12:59
![Members of an association of businessmen and investors involved in inter-Korean economic cooperation projects deliver a letter containing their calls to an official of the Unification Ministry on Nov. 18 at the government complex in central Seoul. [YONHAP]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2025/11/18/eea17766-c70f-452a-a56b-4192e16db7ba.jpg)
Members of an association of businessmen and investors involved in inter-Korean economic cooperation projects deliver a letter containing their calls to an official of the Unification Ministry on Nov. 18 at the government complex in central Seoul. [YONHAP]
Investors in the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea and other suspended inter-Korean economic projects demanded Tuesday that the government enact a special law providing full compensation for their stranded investments.
Members of an association of businessmen and investors involved in inter-Korean economic cooperation projects issued the demand at a press conference, saying the suspension of the joint projects has left them bankrupt or in financial difficulty.
The once-brisk tour program to Mount Kumgang in North Korea came to an abrupt halt in July 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot to death by North Korean soldiers for entering what Pyongyang claimed was an off-limits military area.
Two years later in 2010, Seoul also suspended all other joint economic projects with North Korea in response to North Korea's torpedoing of the South Korean Navy frigate Cheonan that same year.
The suspension exempted the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint factory project in the North Korean border town of the same name, but it was also brought to a halt in 2016 by Seoul over the North's nuclear and missile programs.
Affected South Korean businessmen who had invested in the projects were subsequently given compensation ranging from 45 percent to 90 percent of their investment in 2018.
During Tuesday's press conference, the investors and businessmen claimed that the compensation rates are "unfair" and based on illegitimate grounds.
They also demanded Unification Minister Chung Dong-young meet them in person to address the issue.
A Unification Ministry official said the ministry is "listening to the businessmen's concerns and working to resolve their difficulties."
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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