The Kaesong Industrial Region was established in 2002, carved from the outskirts of the ancient city of Kaesong. Hyundai Asan, a subsidiary of the South Korean conglomerate Hyundai, was hired by Pyongyang to develop the land. The park sat just an hour's drive from Seoul, connected by direct road and rail access. South Korean companies got what they needed -- educated, skilled, Korean-speaking workers at wages far below the South Korean minimum. In 2012, North Korean workers earned an estimated $160 per month, roughly one-fifth of what their Southern counterparts made and about a quarter of typical Chinese factory wages. North Korea got hard currency. By 2011, companies in the park had finally turned an average operating profit, and the zone generated significant revenue for Pyongyang. The arrangement required both sides to set aside, for eight hours a day, the fact that they were technically still at war.

The Kaesong complex became a barometer of inter-Korean relations, opening and shutting with each diplomatic shift. In May 2010, after the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, the North severed ties and shut its consultative office -- but kept the factories running. In April 2013, amid escalating tensions, North Korea pulled all 53,000 workers and shut the complex entirely. The last seven South Korean staff left on May 4. The closure lasted five months, costing the 123 companies a combined $944 million in losses. When Kaesong reopened on September 16, 2013, it came with new provisions designed to prevent a repeat shutdown. Those provisions proved insufficient. On February 10, 2016, following a North Korean rocket launch, the South Korean government halted operations for what it said would be the last time. North Korea expelled all remaining Southern workers, and Seoul cut off the electricity and water that fed the factory zone.

The 2016 closure was justified by Seoul's claim that wages paid to North Korean workers were being diverted to fund Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. In December 2017, an expert panel found no evidence to support this. Panel chief Kim Jong-soo stated that the presidential office had "inserted the wage-diversion argument as major grounds, yet without concrete information, sufficient evidence and consultations with related agencies." Businesses that suffered 250 billion won ($200 million) in losses demanded an apology. The finding raised uncomfortable questions about whether the closure had been a genuine security measure or a political decision dressed in security language. Former President Moon Jae-in later signaled his desire to reopen the complex, but the diplomatic window never opened wide enough.

In September 2018, a new Inter-Korean Liaison Office opened within the Kaesong complex, briefly reviving hope that cooperation might resume. North Korea blew it up in June 2020. By October 2024, Pyongyang had taken a step beyond symbolic destruction: it dug trenches across the roads and rail lines connecting North and South Korea, physically severing the transportation links that had made Kaesong possible. The gesture was medieval in its directness -- no declarations, no negotiations, just ditches in the earth where pavement used to be. The Kaesong Industrial Region sits idle now, its 65-square-kilometer footprint visible on satellite imagery as a developed area that no one develops. The 50-year lease that began in 2004 still has decades left to run. Whether it will ever be used again depends on futures that neither side can predict.