Crs Report for Congress - The Kaesong North-South Korean Industrial Complex: February 14, 2008 - Rl34093 (Paperback)

This purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the role, purposes, and results of the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC) and examine U.S. interests, policy issues, options, and legislation. The KIC is an industrial park located in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) just across the demilitarized zone from South Korea. Currently, over 50 medium-sized South Korean companies are using North Korean labor to manufacture products in Kaesong, but projections are for as many 2,000 firms to locate there. The complex was planned, developed, and financed largely by South Korea, and it has become a symbol of the growing level of engagement between the North and the South. The United States officially supports the KIC. The KIC enters into the U.S. policy debate because: (1) South Korea would like the United States to consider products made in the KIC as South Korean in origin for purposes of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA); (2) the KIC has become a growing source of foreign exchange for the communist government in Pyongyang; (3) the KIC is part of the strategy by South Korea to ease tensions with North Korea; (4) the KIC is a part ...