S. Korea not yet mulling higher-level talks with N. Korea: ministry

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, July 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has no plan yet to push for higher-level
meetings with North Korea despite little progress in on-and-off working-level
talks over the operation of a joint industrial complex there, the Unification
Ministry said Friday.

The ministry was responding to growing doubts about the efficacy of the talks
between director-general-level officials from the two Koreas, whose latest round
was held on Thursday but produced no agreement. No date for a next round was set.

North Korea proposed the talks aimed at negotiating its demands for hefty hikes
in wages paid to North Korean workers and land use fees at the Kaesong complex,
just north of the inter-Korean border, where about 100 South Korean middle- and
small-sized firms operate.
During the three rounds of negotiations in recent weeks, South Korean
representatives called for the release of a South Korean worker, identified by
his family name Yu, who has been detained in the North since late March on
charges of criticizing the communist nation's political system. Seoul views the
detention as a key issue on the operation of the fragile joint venture, once a
token of detente on the divided peninsula.
The North has snubbed the South's requests to release the worker, only
reiterating its demand for better contract terms. Many agree that the two sides
are unlikely to reach a compromise in the near future.
The ministry said, however, that it is premature to seek a higher-level dialogue
with the North.
"It is a matter related to the general situation on South and North Korean
relations," ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said at a press briefing. "The
matter of Yu's detention is not a matter involving the format of negotiations."
The North should immediately free him unconditionally, he added.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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