Koreas end talks without agreement, to meet again next month

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, June 19 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea failed to reach an agreement at
Friday's talks over Pyongyang's demands for wage and rent hikes at a joint
industrial venture, but agreed to meet again next month, a Seoul official said.
The two sides will hold a follow-up meeting July 2, Unification Ministry
spokesman Chun Hae-sung said in a briefing.
South Korea's delegation pressed for the release of a worker who has been
detained since March for "slandering" the North's political system, while North
Korea made demands for wage and rent hikes at the joint park in the North's
border town of Kaesong.
A senior ministry official, requesting anonymity, said North Korea refused to
give word about the Hyundai Asan Corp. employee. Seoul rejected Pyongyang's wage
and rent demands as "unacceptable," he said.
The spokesman said the North offered to lift a traffic curfew it has imposed in
protest of Seoul's conservative policy since December on South Korean businessmen
traveling to the joint park.
South Korea proposed holding joint surveys in foreign industrial zones in the
United States, China and Vietnam, Chun said.
North Korea wants South Korean firms to quadruple monthly wages for its workers
to US$300 from the current $70-80 and raise collective land rent to $500 million,
a 31-fold increase from the $16 million paid when the park opened in 2004.
The talks follow a stern message from South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who
called for a stronger alliance between Seoul and Washington and vowed strict
sanctions against the North for its provocative behavior in a summit with U.S.
President Barack Obama earlier this week.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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