North Korea says future of joint park depends on South Korea

SEOUL, July 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday denounced South Korea's
"confrontational" policies and said the future of their joint industrial complex
will entirely depend on Seoul's attitude, a warning that came after inter-Korean
talks ended without progress.

The two sides failed to narrow differences over the joint park in the North's
border town of Kaesong earlier Thursday. Pyongyang insisted on rent hikes and
refused to discuss a detained South Korean worker, Seoul officials said.
"Our side emphasized that we naturally come to ask whether the South intends to
continue the working-level contact or not, as it talks about 'dialogue' and
'sincerity' in front of us, but then with its back to us, behaves in a way that
inspires confrontation," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The statement laid out a string of examples of the incumbent South Korean
government's recent policy positions that it claims "inspire confrontation"
toward Pyongyang -- from a vow to strictly enforce U.N. sanctions over the
North's May nuclear test, a new defense policy guideline against North Korea's
nuclear and missile base and the reaffirmation of the "Denuclearization,
Openness, 3000" that links Seoul's aid to North Korea to its progress on
denuclearization.
North Korea also condemned South Korea's attitude at the talks as "rude and
insincere," the KCNA claimed, charging Seoul rejected Pyongyang's proposals and
raised "issues that have nothing to do with the agenda" of the talks, only making
the dialogue more complicated.
Seoul's delegation demanded the release of the Hyundai Asan Corp. employee, who
has been held incommunicado since March for criticizing the North's political
system and trying to persuade a North Korean employee to defect, local officials
said.
North Korea insisted that monthly wages for local employees be raised four-fold
to US$300. It also sought $500 million for a 50-year lease on the park, ditching
the $16 million rent deal signed when the park opened in 2004.
The proposed rent is "not high at all," considering industrial zones in foreign
countries and the value of the joint park, the KCNA quoted the North Korean
delegation as saying at the talks.
No date was set for the next round of the talks.
"Our side stressed that the future of the working level contact and the prospects
of the Kaesong industrial complex project entirely depend on the South's
attitude," the North Korean delegation was quoted as saying.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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