North Korea unexpectedly exonerated.

There is no evidence that North Korea used the wages of workers at the now-closed Kaesong industrial complex for its weapons manufacturing program, a panel of experts appointed by South Korea's Ministry of Unification said on December 28.

Kaesong Industrial Complex.

The investigation conducted by the expert panel reversed the South Korean government's earlier argument that most of the money paid by its companies to North Korean workers in the inter-Korean industrial complex was diverted to Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.

Seoul made this announcement when it withdrew from the joint venture, in response to North Korea's launch of a long-range missile last year.

However, in July, two months after President Moon Jae-in was elected, a South Korean government official stated that there was no concrete evidence to support that claim.

According to Reuters, approximately 120 South Korean companies paid $140, double the $70 minimum wage in North Korea, to 55,000 North Korean workers in Kaesong. This project stemmed from the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, when the leaders of the two countries pledged cooperation and reconciliation.

Before the Kaesong industrial complex was closed last year, it was the last remaining symbol of renewed inter-Korean friendship amid frosty cross-border relations between North and South Korea.

The decision to halt the Kaesong project was a "unilateral and verbal" one by President Moon's predecessor, made a day after North Korea's missile test, without any formal discussion within the administration, the expert panel said.

"The President's office used arguments about salaries as a pretext without clear information, concrete evidence, or consultation with relevant agencies. Furthermore, the conclusions were based primarily on the testimony of defectors, which lacks objectivity and credibility," Kim Jong-soo, head of the expert panel, stated to reporters.

The South Korean president has pledged to reopen the Kaesong industrial complex if progress is made in North Korea's denuclearization.

According to Dan Tri