By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong will visit a large-scale industrial park being built in the North Korean town with South Korean capital on a mission to make it attractive to foreign investors.

During his visit, Kim will try to see how Korea’s free trade agreement (FTA) will help boost the Kaesong complex.

South Korea signed an FTA with two countries _ Chile and Singapore. A clause under the pacts provisionally allows goods produced in Kaesong to have the same status as those produced in the South.

The issue involving the tariffs benefits for the North’s products is also being discussed in South Korea’s FTA talks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Canada.

``The trade minister has recently expressed his commitment to visiting Kaesong this month. He is also expected to meet the North’s policymakers,’’ a ministry official said.

Economists forecast such a move to continuously include the issue of the industrial complex in further FTA negotiations with countries such as Japan and the U.S.

The Kaesong Industrial Complex is a crowning achievement of inter-Korean business cooperation.

South Korean firms are setting up shop in the complex since last year in a bid to generate synergy effects between the North’s cheaper labor costs and the South’s high-tech.

The completion of the industrial park on 66 million square meters of land is slated for 2012.

kys@koreatimes.co.kr