South, North Korea to hold talks over joint venture

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, June 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's delegation was set to leave for North
Korea later Thursday to discuss a troubled joint venture amid tension on the
peninsula and uncertainty looming large over Pyongyang's intentions.

North Korea has been threatening naval clashes along the Yellow Sea border with
South Korea and has been holding a South Korean worker since March, accusing him
of "maliciously slandering" the communist regime.
"We hope the talks will go well. Let's see tomorrow," Kim Young-tak, head of
Seoul's 14-member delegation at the Unification Ministry, said Wednesday night.
The talks are set to start at 10 a.m. at the joint park in the North's border
town of Kaesong. North Korea said it will send five officials, led by Pak
Chol-su, vice chief of the Special District General Bureau, Pyongyang's agency
overseeing the joint park.
The North proposed talks last week, but circumstances surrounding the offer
showed few hopeful signs.
The previous inter-Korean meeting in April -- the first government-level talks in
more than a year -- ended bitterly in less than half an hour, as Pyongyang
refused to discuss the South Korean worker. North Korea said it would no longer
grant "special favors" for South Korean firms, such as low wages and rent, as
long as the Seoul government adheres to its hard-line policy.
In a follow-up statement last month, the North declared all contracts regarding
the joint park "null and void," saying it will revise them, and that any South
Korean firms that cannot accept the new terms can leave.
In the upcoming talks, North Korea is expected to lay out its demands, such as
wage hike rates, in more concrete terms rather than negotiate them.
"Chances of negotiation are low," ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
Seoul will press North Korea on the detained worker from Hyundai Asan Corp., the
developer of the joint park, he said. North Korea has refused to allow access to
him, only saying an investigation is underway.
In a separate case this week, North Korea sentenced two detained U.S. journalists
to 12 years of hard labor. Captured near the border with China in March, the
reporters were found guilty of illegal entry and "hostile" acts.
If no progress is made, the new talks may trigger South Korean firms to pull out.
A fur coat manufacturer called Sskin Net will close its factory at the North
Korean park by the end of this month, citing the safety of its employees and a
decrease in sales.
The Kaesong venture, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is the last remaining
inter-Korean economic project to come out of the first inter-Korean summit in
2000. With low wages -- approximately US$70-$80 a month -- and free land use
initially guaranteed until 2014, the park has continued to grow and currently
hosts 106 South Korean firms producing clothing, kitchenware, electronic
equipment and other labor-intensive goods. More than 40,000 North Koreans work
there.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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