Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), South Korea's state-run electricity monopoly, has postponed its plan to construct a transmission tower in an inter-Korean industrial park in North Korea indefinitely amid rising tension on the peninsula in the aftermath of the North's missile launches, the chief of the company said Monday.
"Since the inter-Korean relationship hit a deadlock due to a string of negative factors, such as North Korea's missile firing, we have decided to put off a groundbreaking ceremony that had been slated for Friday to mark the construction of the transmission tower in the Kaesong industrial complex," KEPCO's Chairman & CEO Han Joon-ho said in a meeting with reporters in Seoul. KEPCO had planned to build a transmission tower capable of sending 100,000 kilowatts of electricity from the South to the industrial park, located just across the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.
The company currently transmits 15,000 kilowatts of electricity via 23 telegraph polls for more than 13 South Korean companies operating there.
The South Korean-built complex is a product of a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000 which set off a series of cross-border projects. About a dozen South Korean garment and other labor-intensive plants are currently in operation in the complex.
KEPCO's announcement comes amid escalating tension between the two countries, triggered by the North's missile launches on July 5.
South Korea suspended rice and fertilizer aid to the North. The communist state reacted by halting reunion events for those families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, and also halting the construction of a 12-story reunion center at the North's Mount Geumgang resort.
Last week, North Korea withdrew all of its government officials from a joint dialogue office in Kaesong, cutting off the last direct channel for communication with Seoul.
Seoul, July 24 (Yonhap News)
KEPCO postpones construction of transmission tower in N. Korea indefinitely |
