South Korean water resources company cut water to Kaesong complex in April

South Korea's state-run water management company cut off the water supply to the inter-Korean factory park in Kaesong after business operations were halted in the face of mounting tensions, a lawmaker said Thursday. All operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex came to a screeching stop on April 9 when none of the 53,000 North Korean laborers reported for duty in accordance with orders from Pyongyang. The North took such a step citing unacceptable military and political provocations from Seoul. Rep. Park Ki-choon of the main opposition Democratic Party said during a parliamentary audit, that based on information provided by the Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-water), engineers had sealed the water reprocessing facility in the North Korean border town. "In accordance with emergency protocol, K-water employees stopped all water reprocessing operations on April 29, just before they pulled out of Kaesong," the lawmaker said. He added that the water supply remained offline until July 9 when an advanced team went to Kaesong to prepare for working-level talks that eventually resulted in the complex being reopened for business on Sept. 16. "In effect the government hid the fact that it cut the water from the people and the opposition party," the lawmaker claimed. He said there is a pressing need to know why the truth was withheld. Seoul had always maintained that it did not cut the water supply that is used by complex and some local residents. Park, moreover, claimed that the North broke some of the seals and operated the reprocessing facility and treated an average 16,300 tons of water per day. Related to the allegations raised, the Ministry of Unification emphasized no action had been taken to cut the water. "We had told North Korean workers when we pulled out to take care of the water processing facilities," an official said. He said because of the technical nature of the treatment process, there may have been some misunderstanding. "The part of the treatment process that was halted involved the injection of chlorine into the water supply, and this was done because without an expert constantly monitoring its use, the chemical could pose serious health risks," the official said. He then said that the safety seals that were referred to in the information provided by K-water to Rep. Park were placed to limit access to certain chemicals and materials, and nothing related to the use of water.