S. Korea seeks talks with North next week over detained worker

(ATTN: MODIFIES headline, UPDATES with details, COMBINES with previous stories on failed discussion)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, May 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea proposed holding official talks with North
Korea next week after days of discussions over a possible meeting unraveled
Friday due to disputes over a detained South Korean worker, a spokesman said.
Officials of the two Koreas met in the North's border town of Kaesong to try to
set up the talks, the second after an earlier meeting in April, but tussling over
the agenda doomed their efforts, said Unification Ministry spokesman Kim
Ho-nyoun.
"North Korea's position remains unchanged," Kim said in a press briefing.
Pyongyang called for inter-Korean talks last month to discuss operations at an
industrial park jointly run with South Korea in Kaesong -- the first dialogue
proposal in more than a year. But Seoul's major concern is the fate of the
Hyundai Asan Corp. employee who has been detained there since March 30 on charges
of criticizing the North's political system.
"Our position also remains unchanged that we have to continue to press the
issue," Kim said. "We sent a letter to the North this morning... proposing to
meet early next week."
In the first round on April 21, North Korea demanded wage hikes and contract
revisions. The meeting lasted only 22 minutes, however, as Pyongyang refused to
discuss the detained worker.
A three-member delegation that traveled to Kaesong on Tuesday to set up the
second round were returning home later in the afternoon.
"North Korean officials said they were not authorized to discuss the detention
issue," Kim said. "But we are hoping North Korea will respond to our new
proposal."
Kim said North Korea also wants to hold talks as soon as possible, but only on
condition they do not involve the issue of the detained worker.
Unification Minister Hyun In-taek earlier this week criticized the prolonged
detention as "an unwarranted violation of human rights."
North Korea said May 1 that the South is raising the rights issue "without
knowing about the essence of the case." The detained worker, identified by his
family name Yu, "malignantly slandered the dignified system of the DPRK (North
Korea)," the official Korean Central News Agency said, without specifying
charges.
Pyongyang has yet to give word about the fate of the South Korean. North Korea
also said on Thursday that two U.S. female journalists detained for illegally
entering the country on March 17 will stand trial on June 4.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said setting the trial date may lead to
an early release of the San Francisco-based reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling.
"The trial date being set we view as a welcome time frame. But the fact that they
are now going to have some process we believe is a signal that there can be, and
I hope will be, a resolution as soon as possible," Clinton said.
Analysts suspect North Korea may follow in the footsteps of Iran, which released
an American journalist convicted of espionage on Monday. Pyongyang's state media
said diplomatic events are now underway to mark the Week of DPRK-Iran Friendship.
The Kaesong park, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is a major inter-Korean
reconciliatory symbol that came as an outcome of the first inter-Korean summit in
2000 between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il.
Despite its notable growth over the years, the joint venture has often fallen
victim to political disputes. In the latest such case, North Korea banned South
Korean traffic to the joint park three times in March in protest over a joint
military exercise involving South Korea and the United States.
More than 100 South Korean firms now operate at the Kaesong venture, producing
clothes, utensils, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive products with
nearly 40,000 North Korean workers.
South Korean firms pay about $70-$80 in monthly wages for each North Korean
employee, but the payment is directly wired to North Korean government accounts.
Pyongyang suspended dialogue with Seoul after South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak took office in February last year, taking a tougher stance on North
Korea's nuclear program and ending the unconditional flow of economic aid to the
North.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)