South Korean convenience shop CU hopes to reopen in Gaesong图片展示
发布时间：2024-10-19 观看次数：20101
South Korean convenience shop CU hopes to reopen in Gaesong视频展示
South Korean convenience shop CU hopes to reopen in Gaesong详情
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| An empty Family Mart inside the Gaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea in September 2017. / Korea Times file |
By Ko Dong-hwan
In February 2016, South Korean convenience store chain CU was evicted from an inter-Korean industrial park in the border city of Gaesong in North Korea as bilateral tension increased and Pyongyang shut down the joint economic venture indefinitely.
But as the inter-Korean summit on April 27 at Panmunjeom took a dramatic positive turn and tension eased, the Gaesong Industrial Complex may reopen. If this happens, the 124 South Korean companies that operated in the complex could, if they choose, get their businesses back ― including CU, the only convenience store chain there.
"We feel like we are on thin ice as we are closely monitoring how the joint economic venture will turn out following the summit," a CU official said Sunday. "Our decision depends on the bigger geopolitical issue."
The official hopes CU can return to the industrial park. He believes all the companies involved are "not simply there to make big bucks" but a result of the two countries' efforts to contribute to inter-Korean economic growth.
"As soon as the industrial park reopens, we will resume normal operations that provide a service of convenience to other employees from neighboring companies," he said.
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| CU in central Jongno district in Jung-gu, Seoul. / Korea Times file |
CU, a convenience arm of BGF Retail, opened in Gaesong under its previous name Family Mart when the industrial park opened in 2004. Its second store inside the park opened three years later, and a third store at the industrial park's central supporting center in 2013.
Goods were brought daily from a CU warehouse in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, about 35 kilometers away southeast. Prices were in dollars and the stock was almost the same as stores in the South. Apart from tobacco and liquor, which were duty-free, tariffs were added because they were from the South.
The stores were only available for South Korean workers from the companies in the park and were restricted to North Korean workers. South Koreans managed the stores, but could hire North Koreans as staff members.
"The decision to shut down the industrial park came very fast," the official said, explaining the closure during the Lunar New Year holiday. "We were in such a hurry we had no time to look after the stocks in the stores. We just had to lock the door and leave immediately."
BGF Retail signed a license contract with Japanese convenience franchise Family Mart in 1990. In 2012, the Korean firm introduced its own brand CU to replace the Japanese brand.
BGF Retail opened its first convenience store in the North in 2002, when it signed with Hyundai Asan, a Hyundai Group subsidiary created in 1999 to invest in North Korean tourism. The store opened near the Mount Geumgang resort on the north side of Gangwon Province. BGF operated three stores, including one at Onjeonggak Rest Area and one at a beach.
The stores were shut down in 2008 when North Korean guards shot dead a South Korean tourist at the beach, which led to the suspension of the Mount Geumgang tourism program.