Trade talks between the United States and South Korea will be closely monitored here, where an unprecedented capitalist enclave is emerging from the North Korean scrub land. Planners hope this fledgling industrial zone will eventually employ 700,000 North Koreans manufacturing goods for the world at a fraction of the cost in competing regions.
"The dream is well on its way to becoming reality," said Byun Ha-Jung, a senior manager with Hyundai Asan, the South Korean firm that has pioneered inter-Korean business projects.
The outcome of talks on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that are scheduled to open in May and conclude early next year between the United States and South Korea will play a key role in shaping how that dream evolves.
The Kaesong Industrial Complex is the flagship project for inter-Korean co-operation which combines South Korean capital and know-how with cheap North Korean land and labour.
North and South Korea showcased the project that is still in its early stages to more than 100 foreign reporters who were bussed in to the zone from Seoul this week.
Inside a luminous green fence guarded by shabby North Korean soldiers shouldering automatic rifles some 6,000 North Korean workers are employed making shoes and clothes and other labour intensive goods at a dozen South Korean firms that are up and running in a pilot project covering about 10 hectares (24.7 acres).
More than 2,000 other South Korean firms are queuing up for space in a first phase area of 320 hectares that is under construction and is expected to be completed next year.