KEI Spotlight

KEI's Troy Stangarone was interviewed for the Voice of America article titled "Koreas Set Date for Reopening Shuttered Industrial Park." The excerpts can be found below:

Troy Stangarone, the Senior Director of the Korea Economic Institute of America, tells VOA the deal is an important step for Korean relations. But he is skeptical that international companies will want to invest in Kaesong under the current circumstances.

"The challenge is going to be that most of these companies are going to want to see how the process moves forward. Are there any real assurances that the North Koreans will (keep) the complex open?"

[…]

Stangarone says the loss of this cash was likely a motivation for North Korea in re-opening the factory. But he says Pyongyang was also eager to find jobs for its workers.

"While they found many of them jobs within North Korea, these jobs were not as high of quality. Conditions were not as good, the pay was not as good. There's an important domestic reason for this as well beyond the international hard currency they earned from the project."

To read the full article, please click here.