It was a unique co-operation between two bitter foes: an industrial park that combined South Korean capital with 54,000 North Korean workers.

这是两个宿敌之间一项独特的合作项目：一个融合了韩国资本与5.4万名朝鲜工人的工业园。

Now Seoul’s decision to shut the Kaesong park, 10km inside North Korean territory, has thrown into doubt the prospects for the 124 companies operating there — as well as the future co-operation between the Koreas and the stability of the divided peninsula.

如今，首尔方面决定关闭位于朝韩边境以北10公里的开城工业园(Kaesong Industrial Complex)，这项决定不仅给在园区运营的124家企业的前景打上了问号，还给朝韩之间未来的合作以及这个分裂的半岛的稳定蒙上了阴影。

“Litigation will be our last resort,” says Ok Sung-seek, who runs a clothing business at Kaesong and is vice-chairman of an investors’ association. “We trusted the [South Korean] government and invested there, not just for profits, but also to help the effort towards reunification.”

“不得已的话我们只能起诉，”在开城工业园经营制衣业务、同时担任一家投资者协会副会长的Ok Sung-seek说，“我们信任（韩国）政府，在这里进行投资，不只为了获得利润，也是为了帮助实现统一。”

Last week’s “complete shutdown” of Kaesong came three days after Pyongyang breached international sanctions by testing a nuclear bomb and launching a long-range rocket.

首尔方面上周宣布“彻底关闭”开城工业园，是对此前平壤方面违反国际制裁决议进行核弹试验和发射远程火箭的回应。

The government of Park Geun-hye, which has taken a stern approach to the security threat from North Korea, said it closed the complex to cut off a source of funding for Pyongyang’s increasingly dangerous nuclear programme. But liberal politicians say it has destroyed a unique means of promoting economic and ideological change in the North.

面对朝鲜对韩国国家安全构成的威胁，朴槿惠(Park Geun-hye)政府作出了严厉的回应，称关闭开城工业园是为了切断平壤方面越来越危险的核计划的资金来源。但开明派政治人士表示，此举毁掉了促成朝鲜经济与意识形态转变的一项独特手段。

The park, opened in 2004, was born out of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000 at the outset of the “sunshine policy” pursued by two successive liberal South Korean administrations.

于2004年启动的开城工业园是2000年首次韩朝峰会的成果。2000年，韩国开始对朝推行“阳光政策”(sunshine policy)，这一政策为连续两届开明派韩国政府所奉行。

But the project’s growth was slower than hoped, coming mostly from small companies in labour-intensive “sunset” industries such as clothing manufacturing. New investment was suspended altogether by then South Korean president Lee Myung-bak in 2010, after an investigation found North Korea had sunk one of the South’s naval vessels.

但开城工业园项目的发展速度并不尽如人意，园区的发展主要来自成衣制造等劳动密集型“夕阳”产业的小企业。2010年，在一项调查发现朝鲜击沉了一艘韩国军舰后，时任韩国总统的李明博(Lee Myung-bak)全面中止了对该园区的新投资。

Mr Lee resisted calls to close the park, despite complaints from some conservatives that the “wages” of the workers were paid by employers to Pyongyang.

李明博抵制住了关于关闭开城工业园的呼声，尽管一些保守派人士抱怨称，雇主们将朝鲜工人的“工资”付给了平壤方面。

In 2024, when Pyongyang shut down Kaesong amid bilateral tensions, the two governments agreed “to guarantee the normal operation of the complex, [which was] not to be affected by inter-Korean situations under any circumstances”.

2024年，当平壤方面因朝韩双边关系紧张关闭开城工业园时，两国政府一致同意“保证园区正常运转，（园区）在任何情况下都不会受朝韩局势影响”。

Seoul has justified its decision to reverse this pledge by saying the Won616bn ($506m) that flowed into North Korea helped fund nuclear weapon and missile development.

首尔方面为自己破除这一承诺找了一个理由，称流入朝鲜的6160亿韩元（合5.06亿美元）资助了朝鲜的核武与导弹研发。

Hong Yong-pyo, unification minister, said this week 70 per cent of the money had been used for nuclear and missile development by Kim Jong Un’s regime.

韩国统一部部长洪容杓(Hong Yong-pyo)本周表示，这笔钱有70%被金正恩(Kim Jong Un)政权用于核武与导弹研发。

But when lawmakers pushed him for evidence to back the claim, noting that Seoul could have breached UN sanctions if it knowingly funded the North’s nuclear programme, he said the government did not have any. The ministry later backtracked on this and said it had evidence that could not be disclosed.

但当韩国国会议员敦促洪容杓拿出证据支持其说法时（议员们指出，如果韩国政府在知情的情况下资助了朝鲜的核计划，那它可能已经违反了联合国的制裁决议），他表示，政府手中并没有任何证据。韩国统一部后来修正了这一声明，表示有证据、但不能公开。

The confusion, which has prompted calls for Mr Hong’s resignation, has distracted from the real question, says Chun Yung-woo, head of the Korean Peninsula Future Forum, a think-tank.

智库“朝鲜半岛未来论坛”(Korean Peninsula Future Forum)负责人千英宇(Chun Yung-woo)表示，这种混乱（已引发了要求洪容杓辞职的呼声）分散了对真正问题的注意力。

“It doesn’t make a difference whether Kim Jong Un uses money from this or that pocket,” he says. The industrial park had to be closed, he insists, to bolster South Korea’s diplomatic position as it pushes China and others to impose tougher sanctions against North Korea.

他说：“金正恩用的是这个兜里的钱还是那个兜里的钱并不重要。”他坚称，开城工业园必须关闭，如此才能强化韩国的外交立场。目前，韩国正推动中国及其他国家对朝实施更严厉的制裁。

“How can we ask other countries to impose a secondary boycott on Chinese companies doing business with North Korea without closing Kaesong?” he asks.

“如果不关闭开城工业园，我们怎么能要求其他国家对与朝鲜做生意的中国企业实施间接抵制呢？”他反问道。

Tensions are likely to rise further in March when South Korea and the US begin their annual joint military exercises, which Pyongyang condemns as practice for invasion. “Shutting down all these channels is dangerous,” says Kim Jae-chun, a professor at Sogang University, adding that Kaesong would not be open again “for a long while”, if at all, given that South Korea had in effect condemned the logic for the project as long as North Korea pursues nuclear weapons. “I think South Korea raised the bar too high,” he says. “It is implausible for the North Korean government to get rid of these weapons of mass destruction altogether.”

今年3月，紧张局势很可能进一步加剧。届时，韩国与美国将展开年度联合军事演习。平壤方面谴责这些演习是为入侵朝鲜做演练。韩国西江大学(Sogang University)教授Kim Jae-chun表示：“关闭所有此类沟通渠道是危险的。”他补充说，开城工业园要想重开可能要等上“很长一段时间”——前提是真能重开的话——原因是韩国事实上已经宣称，在朝鲜研发核武器的情况下该项目已无存在的道理。“我认为韩国将门槛抬得太高。”他说，“朝鲜政府不可能完全放弃这些大规模杀伤性武器。”

The impact of a permanent shutdown at Kaesong would be cushioned for Mr Ok by insurance payments and government compensation, but he believes it would be a disaster for his 300 North Korean employees.

对Ok Sung-seek来说，保险赔付和政府补偿将会缓解开城工业园永久关闭给他造成的冲击。但他认为，永久性关闭对他的300名朝鲜雇员来说将是一场灾难。

“I believe a significant amount of money has been going to the workers,” he says, while conceding that he has never been told how much they receive.

他说：“我相信很大一部分钱到了这些工人手中。”但他也承认，他从未被告知他们拿到了多少钱。

In the years after he set up his factory in 2007, Mr Ok says, his workers — initially skinny and malnourished — became healthier. But when he returned after the five-month shutdown in 2024, that progress had sharply reversed.

Ok Sung-seek说，2007年设厂后的几年里，他手下的工人从最初的皮包骨头、营养不良变得健康起来。但在2024年，当他在园区关闭5个月后回到这里时，发现这一态势已急剧逆转。

“Everyone seemed to have lost weight,” he says. “They were going back to how they looked at the beginning.”

“每个人看上去都变瘦了，”他说，“他们又变回了刚来时的样子。”

It was a unique co-operation between two bitter foes: an industrial park that combined South Korean capital with 54,000 North Korean workers.

这是两个宿敌之间一项独特的合作项目：一个融合了韩国资本与5.4万名朝鲜工人的工业园。

Now Seoul’s decision to shut the Kaesong park, 10km inside North Korean territory, has thrown into doubt the prospects for the 124 companies operating there — as well as the future co-operation between the Koreas and the stability of the divided peninsula.

如今，首尔方面决定关闭位于朝韩边境以北10公里的开城工业园(Kaesong Industrial Complex)，这项决定不仅给在园区运营的124家企业的前景打上了问号，还给朝韩之间未来的合作以及这个分裂的半岛的稳定蒙上了阴影。

“Litigation will be our last resort,” says Ok Sung-seek, who runs a clothing business at Kaesong and is vice-chairman of an investors’ association. “We trusted the [South Korean] government and invested there, not just for profits, but also to help the effort towards reunification.”

“不得已的话我们只能起诉，”在开城工业园经营制衣业务、同时担任一家投资者协会副会长的Ok Sung-seek说，“我们信任（韩国）政府，在这里进行投资，不只为了获得利润，也是为了帮助实现统一。”

Last week’s “complete shutdown” of Kaesong came three days after Pyongyang breached international sanctions by testing a nuclear bomb and launching a long-range rocket.

首尔方面上周宣布“彻底关闭”开城工业园，是对此前平壤方面违反国际制裁决议进行核弹试验和发射远程火箭的回应。

The government of Park Geun-hye, which has taken a stern approach to the security threat from North Korea, said it closed the complex to cut off a source of funding for Pyongyang’s increasingly dangerous nuclear programme. But liberal politicians say it has destroyed a unique means of promoting economic and ideological change in the North.

面对朝鲜对韩国国家安全构成的威胁，朴槿惠(Park Geun-hye)政府作出了严厉的回应，称关闭开城工业园是为了切断平壤方面越来越危险的核计划的资金来源。但开明派政治人士表示，此举毁掉了促成朝鲜经济与意识形态转变的一项独特手段。

The park, opened in 2004, was born out of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000 at the outset of the “sunshine policy” pursued by two successive liberal South Korean administrations.

于2004年启动的开城工业园是2000年首次韩朝峰会的成果。2000年，韩国开始对朝推行“阳光政策”(sunshine policy)，这一政策为连续两届开明派韩国政府所奉行。

But the project’s growth was slower than hoped, coming mostly from small companies in labour-intensive “sunset” industries such as clothing manufacturing. New investment was suspended altogether by then South Korean president Lee Myung-bak in 2010, after an investigation found North Korea had sunk one of the South’s naval vessels.

但开城工业园项目的发展速度并不尽如人意，园区的发展主要来自成衣制造等劳动密集型“夕阳”产业的小企业。2010年，在一项调查发现朝鲜击沉了一艘韩国军舰后，时任韩国总统的李明博(Lee Myung-bak)全面中止了对该园区的新投资。

Mr Lee resisted calls to close the park, despite complaints from some conservatives that the “wages” of the workers were paid by employers to Pyongyang.

李明博抵制住了关于关闭开城工业园的呼声，尽管一些保守派人士抱怨称，雇主们将朝鲜工人的“工资”付给了平壤方面。

In 2024, when Pyongyang shut down Kaesong amid bilateral tensions, the two governments agreed “to guarantee the normal operation of the complex, [which was] not to be affected by inter-Korean situations under any circumstances”.

2024年，当平壤方面因朝韩双边关系紧张关闭开城工业园时，两国政府一致同意“保证园区正常运转，（园区）在任何情况下都不会受朝韩局势影响”。

Seoul has justified its decision to reverse this pledge by saying the Won616bn ($506m) that flowed into North Korea helped fund nuclear weapon and missile development.

首尔方面为自己破除这一承诺找了一个理由，称流入朝鲜的6160亿韩元（合5.06亿美元）资助了朝鲜的核武与导弹研发。

Hong Yong-pyo, unification minister, said this week 70 per cent of the money had been used for nuclear and missile development by Kim Jong Un’s regime.

韩国统一部部长洪容杓(Hong Yong-pyo)本周表示，这笔钱有70%被金正恩(Kim Jong Un)政权用于核武与导弹研发。

But when lawmakers pushed him for evidence to back the claim, noting that Seoul could have breached UN sanctions if it knowingly funded the North’s nuclear programme, he said the government did not have any. The ministry later backtracked on this and said it had evidence that could not be disclosed.

但当韩国国会议员敦促洪容杓拿出证据支持其说法时（议员们指出，如果韩国政府在知情的情况下资助了朝鲜的核计划，那它可能已经违反了联合国的制裁决议），他表示，政府手中并没有任何证据。韩国统一部后来修正了这一声明，表示有证据、但不能公开。

The confusion, which has prompted calls for Mr Hong’s resignation, has distracted from the real question, says Chun Yung-woo, head of the Korean Peninsula Future Forum, a think-tank.

智库“朝鲜半岛未来论坛”(Korean Peninsula Future Forum)负责人千英宇(Chun Yung-woo)表示，这种混乱（已引发了要求洪容杓辞职的呼声）分散了对真正问题的注意力。

“It doesn’t make a difference whether Kim Jong Un uses money from this or that pocket,” he says. The industrial park had to be closed, he insists, to bolster South Korea’s diplomatic position as it pushes China and others to impose tougher sanctions against North Korea.

他说：“金正恩用的是这个兜里的钱还是那个兜里的钱并不重要。”他坚称，开城工业园必须关闭，如此才能强化韩国的外交立场。目前，韩国正推动中国及其他国家对朝实施更严厉的制裁。

“How can we ask other countries to impose a secondary boycott on Chinese companies doing business with North Korea without closing Kaesong?” he asks.

“如果不关闭开城工业园，我们怎么能要求其他国家对与朝鲜做生意的中国企业实施间接抵制呢？”他反问道。

Tensions are likely to rise further in March when South Korea and the US begin their annual joint military exercises, which Pyongyang condemns as practice for invasion. “Shutting down all these channels is dangerous,” says Kim Jae-chun, a professor at Sogang University, adding that Kaesong would not be open again “for a long while”, if at all, given that South Korea had in effect condemned the logic for the project as long as North Korea pursues nuclear weapons. “I think South Korea raised the bar too high,” he says. “It is implausible for the North Korean government to get rid of these weapons of mass destruction altogether.”

今年3月，紧张局势很可能进一步加剧。届时，韩国与美国将展开年度联合军事演习。平壤方面谴责这些演习是为入侵朝鲜做演练。韩国西江大学(Sogang University)教授Kim Jae-chun表示：“关闭所有此类沟通渠道是危险的。”他补充说，开城工业园要想重开可能要等上“很长一段时间”——前提是真能重开的话——原因是韩国事实上已经宣称，在朝鲜研发核武器的情况下该项目已无存在的道理。“我认为韩国将门槛抬得太高。”他说，“朝鲜政府不可能完全放弃这些大规模杀伤性武器。”

The impact of a permanent shutdown at Kaesong would be cushioned for Mr Ok by insurance payments and government compensation, but he believes it would be a disaster for his 300 North Korean employees.

对Ok Sung-seek来说，保险赔付和政府补偿将会缓解开城工业园永久关闭给他造成的冲击。但他认为，永久性关闭对他的300名朝鲜雇员来说将是一场灾难。

“I believe a significant amount of money has been going to the workers,” he says, while conceding that he has never been told how much they receive.

他说：“我相信很大一部分钱到了这些工人手中。”但他也承认，他从未被告知他们拿到了多少钱。

In the years after he set up his factory in 2007, Mr Ok says, his workers — initially skinny and malnourished — became healthier. But when he returned after the five-month shutdown in 2024, that progress had sharply reversed.

Ok Sung-seek说，2007年设厂后的几年里，他手下的工人从最初的皮包骨头、营养不良变得健康起来。但在2024年，当他在园区关闭5个月后回到这里时，发现这一态势已急剧逆转。

“Everyone seemed to have lost weight,” he says. “They were going back to how they looked at the beginning.”

“每个人看上去都变瘦了，”他说，“他们又变回了刚来时的样子。”