President Park Geun-hye instructed aides Monday to come up with support measures as early as possible for South Korean firms suffering from North Korea’s suspension of a jointly run industrial park in the communist nation.

South Korean firms, which have factories in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the North’s border city of the same name, have demanded that their government provide them with tax breaks, credit guarantees and other benefits to help make up for their losses arising from the zone’s suspension.

Early this month, North Korea withdrew all of its 53,000 workers from the zone, forcing the 123 small-scale South Korean factories there to suspend their operations. Pyongyang has also been barring South Koreans from entering the complex while allowing only those already there to return to the South.

During a weekly meeting with senior secretaries, Park said that related government agencies, such as the finance ministry, the unification ministry and the National Tax Service should work together to carry out appropriate support measures for those companies at an early date.

“The solution would be for North Korea to normalize the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, but what is more pressing than anything else is for the government to take active measures to address difficulties of companies suffering damage,” Park said during the meeting.

Park also urged Pyongyang to honor an inter-Korean agreement and re-start operations at the complex. She stressed that such a basic promise must be kept to build trust between the two sides based on which they can discuss new promises.

“This is not only a promise to the Republic of Korea, but it is also an issue of trust with the entire world,” she said. “If a promise is broken out of the blue, who will come and make a promise (with North Korea)?”

Park also expressed concern about a news report that an auto parts company, one of the South Korean firms with operations at the complex, had their contract canceled as it failed to deliver parts to its Indian partner because of the suspension.

“I am concerned that the future of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex may grow darker if the trouble is compounded by a fall in (the companies’) credit due to their failure to deliver on contracts,” she said. (Yonhap News)