KEPCO to Supply Power to N.Korea from Next Year for First Time
- 15 S.Korean Firms Operating in Gaesung Ind. Estate to benefit from power supply


South Korea will be able to supply electricity to North Korea's Gaesung Industrial Estate by early next year. Korea Electric Power Co.(KEPCO) will supply 15,000 kw of power to the industrial complex for the use by the 15 South Korean plants located in the complex. The power supply if used all day long will amount to 360,000 kw. When the first stage of 1 million pyeong of the industrial estate in North Korea becomes operable in 2007, the power supply will be increased to 100,000 kw.
KEPCO announced that it signed with North Korea's Central Special District Development Guidance Bureau an agreement providing for the power supply on Dec.3.
Under the agreement, KEPCO will install power lines from the South to the industrial complex to supply electricity to 15 South Korean plants located in the North Korean industrial park. The power company will take charge of the project from designing to construction of power lines from the South to the North Korean industrial park.
North Korea initially wanted the South to build a power station in the North to supply power to the industrial park, but KEPCO took charge of supplying power directly to the North.
South Korean firms with plants in the Gaesung Industrial Estate have been elated by the news that the KEPCO will supply power to the industrial estate. Officials of the Samduk Trading Co., a shoe maker with plants in the North, said we are fortunate to have the power supply problems resolved and it will lead other small firms with substantial power needs would be able to build plants in the North.
It is the first time that the South will supply power to the North since the division of the Korean Peninsula. KEPCO will build power cables with 22,900 voltages and supply power to the 28,000 pyeong of a trial estate in the industrial complex. It will be increased to 100,000 kw when the first stage of the industrial complex taking up 1 million pyeong in area is completed in 2007. KEPCO's Munsan transmission station will handle the power supply for both the trial estate and the industrial park and all together 300 South Korean firms will become the beneficiaries of the power supply including those to set up their plants in the first stage completion of the industrial park. KEPCO will install power poles to supply power, not through steel towers.
A company official, who is an expert member of the Gaesung Industrial District Company Heads Conference, said "our business activities in the industrial park seem outside the security law now." President Cho Dong-gu of the Hosan Ace Co., said the fact that the law often is mentioned doesn't help business activities in the industrial park. Manager Lee Sang-on of the Taesung Co. said the law has a psychological impact on businesses dealing with the North.
However, the business community is going a step ahead of power supply. Samduk Trading officials said telephones, passage of people and the use of currency should be resolved as soon as possible and they think they will soon to remove various barriers to doing business in the North.
The Kukje Shinmun, a leading daily in Busan where a support base for the Grand National Party, carried a report in its front page saying that about 30 shoe makers from the city are ready to relocate to the industrial complex in the North under a headline, "Let's Recover Old Glory in Gaesung." It showed that the industrial complex would not be a political problem in the South. Most companies would relocate their plants to the North and maintain head offices in Busan to kick off their second take-off in business under the two-top system, the influential paper said. nw