This file picture, captured from footage supplied by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Workers on Oct. 15, exhibits North Korea blowing up elements of the Donghae highway related to South Korea earlier within the day. (Newsis)
The unification ministry stated Monday it’s reviewing measures to reclaim loans granted to North Korea for constructing inter-Korean roads and practice tracks after the North blew them up in October.
The unification ministry unveiled the tentative measures as a part of its coverage plan for the second half of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration, which is now on the midpoint of his five-year time period.
On Oct. 15, North Korea demolished elements of the roads and practice tracks related to South Korea — the Gyeongui Line within the western border area and the Donghae Line alongside the east coast — in its newest show of escalating hostility towards the South.
The unification ministry stated a overview is beneath means, in collaboration with different associated ministries, to hunt the gathering of loans to North Korea amid considerations the nation might refuse to repay them following its detonation of inter-Korean roads and practice tracks.
From 2002-2008, South Korea supplied in-kind loans value $132.9 million to North Korea to assemble roads and practice tracks alongside the 2 inter-Korean traces.
“As the scale of the loans has not been finalized as a result of procedural issues, the ministry is reviewing whether or not finalization will be achieved now and whether or not motion will be taken instantly to get well the loans and not using a grace interval,” a ministry official stated.
Beneath the coverage plan, the ministry can even search to extend help to North Korean defectors, together with via a revision invoice, presently pending within the Nationwide Meeting, geared toward offering tax cuts to firms that make use of North Korean defectors who’ve settled in South Korea. (Yonhap)
