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SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- An association of South Korean companies that formerly operated at an inter-Korean factory zone in North Korea on Tuesday called on the government to make efforts to allow business owners to visit the now-shuttered complex.

About 80 representatives from 38 member companies of the Corporate Association of Gaeseong Industrial Complex (CAGIC) made the request at a press conference held at the customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) office at Dorasan Station in Paju, just north of Seoul.

The association said its members hope to reenter the Kaesong Industrial Complex, which has been closed for the past decade, to inspect their business assets there.

"Ten years after the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, companies that operated there are facing a threat to their survival. We want to return to Kaesong," CAGIC Chairman Cho Kyung-joo told reporters.

The Park Geun-hye administration shut down the industrial complex on Feb. 10, 2016, in response to North Korea's nuclear test and long-range missile launches.

Launched in 2004 as a flagship project symbolizing inter-Korean economic cooperation and reconciliation, the complex once employed about 55,000 North Korean workers at 120 South Korean firms.

Cho also urged the U.S. government to play a responsible role in approving visits by South Korean business owners aimed at protecting their assets in Kaesong.

"Just as the United States recently granted sanctions exemptions for humanitarian assistance in several global cases discussed at United Nations meetings, it should make clear that business owners' visits to inspect their assets in Kaesong do not fall under sanctions," he said.

Appealing to North Korea, Cho said companies operating at the complex had conducted business in good faith based on inter-Korean agreements and called on Pyongyang to cooperate in allowing business owners to visit the industrial zone.

In this photo taken Feb. 10, 2026, and provided by the Corporate Association of Gaeseong Industrial Complex, representatives of member companies with business assets at the now-closed Kaesong Industrial Park in North Korea call for government efforts to reopen the complex and allow their visits during a press conference at the customs, immigration and quarantine office at Dorasan Station in Paju, north of Seoul. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr(END)

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