ID :
64424
Sat, 06/06/2009 - 15:26
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/64424
The shortlink copeid
South, North Korea to meet at joint park next week
(ATTN: MODIFIES lead, UPDATES with details)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea will meet at a joint industrial
park in the North next week, a Seoul official said Friday, amid sharpening
military tensions and a deadlock over a detained South Korean worker.
North Korea "sent a document today proposing working-level talks" on June 11
regarding the joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong, and the Seoul
government notified its acceptance of the proposal, said Unification Ministry
spokesman Chun Hae-sung.
The dialogue offer came weeks after inter-Korean negotiations to set up
government-level talks broke down due to agenda differences. North Korea demanded
the talks deal with issues of wages, land use fees and other contracts governing
the joint park, refusing Seoul's demands to include the release of the detained
worker on the agenda.
The Hyundai Asan Corp. employee was detained at the joint park on March 30 on
charges of "slandering" the North's political system and trying to incite
defection by a local female employee.
The North has refused to allow access to the worker, identified only by his
family name Yu.
Chun said the two Koreas have been communicating to set up the talks since the
negotiations failed.
On April 21, South and North Korea held their first government-level meeting in
more than a year. North Korea complained that the wages paid to its workers at
the Kaesong park are too low and demanded that Seoul start paying land use fees
from next year, four years ahead of schedule. The North said it would scrap
"special favors" for the South Korean firms granted in the spirit of the 2000
inter-Korean summit.
The joint venture, about an hour's drive from Seoul, is the last remaining
inter-Korean economic project born out of the summit meeting between then South
Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. More than 100
South Korean firms currently operate at the park, producing clothes, kitchenware,
electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods with some 40,000 North
Korean employees.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea will meet at a joint industrial
park in the North next week, a Seoul official said Friday, amid sharpening
military tensions and a deadlock over a detained South Korean worker.
North Korea "sent a document today proposing working-level talks" on June 11
regarding the joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong, and the Seoul
government notified its acceptance of the proposal, said Unification Ministry
spokesman Chun Hae-sung.
The dialogue offer came weeks after inter-Korean negotiations to set up
government-level talks broke down due to agenda differences. North Korea demanded
the talks deal with issues of wages, land use fees and other contracts governing
the joint park, refusing Seoul's demands to include the release of the detained
worker on the agenda.
The Hyundai Asan Corp. employee was detained at the joint park on March 30 on
charges of "slandering" the North's political system and trying to incite
defection by a local female employee.
The North has refused to allow access to the worker, identified only by his
family name Yu.
Chun said the two Koreas have been communicating to set up the talks since the
negotiations failed.
On April 21, South and North Korea held their first government-level meeting in
more than a year. North Korea complained that the wages paid to its workers at
the Kaesong park are too low and demanded that Seoul start paying land use fees
from next year, four years ahead of schedule. The North said it would scrap
"special favors" for the South Korean firms granted in the spirit of the 2000
inter-Korean summit.
The joint venture, about an hour's drive from Seoul, is the last remaining
inter-Korean economic project born out of the summit meeting between then South
Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. More than 100
South Korean firms currently operate at the park, producing clothes, kitchenware,
electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods with some 40,000 North
Korean employees.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
