N. Korea has no intention to close joint park: Seoul official

SEOUL, June 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea does not appear to want to shut down an
industrial park jointly run with South Korea, although it is demanding steep wage
and rent hikes that may be unacceptable, Seoul's representative to Thursday's
talks said.
In the rare government-level talks, North Korea raised rent fees and demanded the
South more than quadruple monthly salaries for local employees at the joint park
in its border town of Kaesong.
"Judging from the amount of the money it is asking, North Korea may seem like it
is telling (South Korean firms) to leave," Kim said in a briefing after returning
from Kaesong.
"But I can tell you for sure that there was no such word," he said. "My
understanding is that the North Koreans on the field want to develop the Kaesong
industrial park and are willing to negotiate."
The talks were a follow-up to an April meeting, which broke down in less than
half an hour as the two sides could not narrow differences.
The Kaesong venture, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is the last remaining
inter-Korean economic project to come out of the historic inter-Korean summit in
2000. With low rent and wages -- roughly US$70-80 -- the park now hosts 106 small
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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