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 SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said on Tuesday that it was turning off two nuclear power reactors and delaying the scheduled start of operations at another two after its inspectors discovered that the reactors used components whose safety certificates had been fabricated. 
 
 South Korea’s nuclear power industry has been plagued by a series of forced shutdowns, corruption scandals and mechanical failures in recent years, undermining public confidence in atomic energy even as the country’s dependence on it for electricity is expected to grow. 
 
 An anonymous whistle-blower led government investigators to uncover the latest problem, in which control cables that had failed to pass a safety test were given fake certificates and supplied to four reactors, the country’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said Tuesday. The control cable is used to send electronic signals to a reactor’s control system in the event of an accident. 
 
 The commission halted operations at two reactors on Tuesday so the problematic cables could be replaced. The planned start-up of two other reactors — one under a routine maintenance shutdown and the other a newly built reactor waiting for operational approval — will be delayed for the same reason. 
 
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 South Korea has 23 reactors, and Tuesday’s decision means that 10 reactors are temporarily off line for safety concerns, maintenance and other reasons, raising the risk of power shortages in the summer, when electricity consumption peaks. 
 
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 The two reactors shut down on Tuesday are on the southeastern coast of South Korea, and each has a capacity of 1,000 megawatts. The recurring scandals have damaged the reputation of South Korea’s nuclear power industry, which supplies one-third of the country’s electricity needs and aspires to become a global exporter of reactors. 
 
 Despite increasing public concern, however, the government remained determined to push ahead with its aggressive nuclear power program; the country plans to add 16 more reactors by 2030. ||||| (LEAD) N. Korea invites S. Korean bizmen, officials to talks 
 
 SEOUL, May 28 (Yonhap) -- In what appeared to be a conciliatory move, North Korea on Tuesday invited South Korean officials as well as businessmen for talks on reopening a suspended joint industrial complex in its territory.The joint industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong remains shut down since early April when the communist country withdrew all of its 53,000 workers hired by 123 small-size South Korean factories operating there.South Korea has since proposed working government-level talks to try to reopen the factory zone but North Korea has turned it down, demanding that Seoul should first address more fundamental issues such as joint military exercises with the U.S.On Tuesday, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the North's arm for dealing with cross-border affairs with Seoul, said that Pyongyang is willing to start talks on the future of the industrial complex.In a statement issued by its unidentified spokesman, the committee noted that North Korea has already approved a plan by the South Korean business representatives to visit the industrial complex for maintenance and other purposes."We have given permission for the visit and can even discuss the shipment of products at the industrial complex," it said, adding that if the South Korean entrepreneurs visit the North, discussions can be made on the normalization of the complex.The North's committee said it will fully guarantee safe passage of all South Koreans who would cross the border for the visit."If the South feels uneasy, it can send members of the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee with the businessmen," the statement said. The committee is not a government organization but represents the country's interests in Kaesong. Its chairman Hong Yang-ho is a former Ministry of Unification vice minister.South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, was cautious in assessing the North's move, saying that government-level talks should be held first. It said business representatives have no authority to discuss the matter.Related to the proposal made, Yang Moo-jin, a political science professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the North may be trying to abide by the promise it made to China through its special envoy, to engage in talks.North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's special envoy Choe Ryong-hae was in Beijing last week and promised to engage in dialogue with interested parties, including in the stalled six-party talks. Choe, the director of the General Political Bureau of North Korea's People's Army, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and delivered Kim's personal message,"Pyongyang seems to be aiming to first hold talks with businessmen, followed by working level governmental talks that can pave the way for other exchanges," Yang speculated.In a separate statement, the North's committee criticized Seoul for banning the proposed joint civilian celebrations of the upcoming anniversary of the historic June 15, 1980 inter-Korean summit."The participation of South Koreans in the event must be permitted and if Seoul is fearful of the gathering triggering internal discord, it can send government officials with the group," it said.Pro-unification civic activist groups from both Koreas had jointly marked the anniversary almost every year since the historic inter-Korean summit until a conservative government took office in Seoul in 2008.The sitting South Korean government of President Park Geun-hye barred this year's joint civilian celebration of the anniversary, saying that it could create discord among South Koreans.The two Koreas, which remain divided since 1945, are in a state of conflict, as they did not sign a peace treaty at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.(END)
– Is North Korea ready to play nice? Pyongyang today invited officials and businessmen from South Korea to discuss reopening the Kaesong industrial complex, a joint venture in the North's territory that was shut down last month during Pyongyang's temper tantrum. Seoul had previously proposed government talks on reopening the factories, but North Korea had rejected that idea. But now, permission has been given for South Korean business reps to return to Kaesong to do maintenance, and the North has agreed to "discuss the shipment of products at the industrial complex" and a normalization of operations, according to the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea. South Korea's Unification Ministry was wary of the move, believing talks should be held by the governments, not businessmen, Yonhap News reports. But one expert believes the North is hoping these talks "pave the way" to government-level discussions. In other news from the Korean peninsula, operations have been halted or delayed at four South Korean nuclear reactors after it was discovered that some of the components used had fake safety certificates, the New York Times reports. It's just the latest of many problems to hit Seoul's nuclear power industry, and leaves just 13 of the country's 23 reactors online, leading to concerns of summer power shortages.