N. Korea calls meeting with S. Korean firms in Kaesong

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with Unification Ministry's press briefing; CHANGES source)
By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Yonhap) -- Heads of South Korean plants operating at an
inter-Korean joint industrial complex left for North Korea on Monday for a
meeting with their Northern counterparts, officials said.

The one-day trip was made at the request of North Korea but the meeting's agenda
is not known, Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry on
cross-border relations, said in a press briefing.
Tension is rising on the Korean Peninsula, a week before the date on which North
Korea said it would put into effect additional restrictions against the South as
punishment for what it called Seoul's confrontational policy.
Earlier this month, the North threatened to more strictly control border
crossings starting Dec. 1 unless Seoul takes a new course in inter-Korean
relations. The measure is feared to cripple operations in the South Korea-run
industrial complex.
Pyongyang has already closed its Red Cross mission and direct phone links at the
truce village of Panmunjom.
Officials say the North may inform the delegates during the meeting of additional
measures aimed at pressuring South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to change his
policies. Such steps may include the banning of certain vehicles from entering
the complex or ejection of more South Korean personnel working there.
The visiting group includes 84 chief managers of the plants and two chiefs from
the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee and the Corporation of
Kaesong Industrial Council, both civilian bodies who control management of the
complex, the spokesman said.
A senior official of a North Korean office governing the joint complex visited
the committee's office on Saturday to request the visit, he added. The official,
however, did not say who will present North Korea during the meeting, scheduled
for Monday morning, Kim said.
Eighty-eight small-sized South Korean garment and other labor-intensive plants
were operating in Kaesong, located just north of the heavily armed border, as of
the middle of this month. The businesses employ roughly 36,000 North Korean
workers.
Inter-Korean relations have soured since the conservative Lee government took
office in February. Lee has vowed that the expansion of inter-Korean projects
will only follow North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
North Korea is especially upset at Seoul's reluctance to carry out a slew of
cross-border economic projects that were agreed upon in the historic summits of
2000 and 2007. Those projects would require massive South Korean investment in
the impoverished communist state.
North Korea has also protested the spreading of anti-Pyongyang leaflets by South
Korean activist groups. South Korea's large-scale war exercises with the U.S.
military and the South's participation as a sponsor of the U.N. resolution on
North Korea human rights this year further agitated relations.
sshim@yna.co.kr
(END)