N. Korea sends more workers to Kaesong despite stalemate: businessmen

SEOUL, July 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has recently dispatched 700 additional
workers to South Korean firms at an industrial park on its soil, businessmen said
Monday, amid a stalemate in government-level negotiations over the joint venture.

The move raised questions about the intentions of North Korea, which in three
rounds of talks over the past month refused to back down from demands for steep
wage and rent hikes at the complex. South Korea has rejected the North's demands.
Two South Korean businessmen who operate factories at the park in the North's
border town of Kaesong said about 700 North Korean workers were newly dispatched
to South Korean firms there last month, and more were expected this week.
"The North side is telling us it will continue to supply labor," one businessman
who owns a clothing firm said, asking to remain anonymous. His factory received
50 workers, some as young as high school graduates, increasing its work force to
350.
Unification Ministry officials said they were trying to verify the information
and whether the move involved an entirely new work force or replacements.
Previous groups were smaller, around 100 a month, and mostly those in their 40s
and 50s. The park currently employees about 39,000 North Koreans.
Ministry officials also could not say whether Pyongyang's latest action meant
North Korea intends to continue to develop the joint park or was a face-saving
measure preceding another hardline action, such as expelling South Korean firms
who refuse to meet its demands on wage and rent hikes.
The joint park, which hosts more than 100 South Korean businesses and is the last
remaining inter-Korean project, has been seen by outsiders as a rare source of
hard cash for North Korea's frail economy, providing more than US$26 million in
wages last year. Some analysts say, however, that Pyongyang is willing to risk
economic losses to drive home its political messages.
Government-level negotiations made no progress, with the latest round held on
July 2 ending without even scheduling the next meeting. North Korea demanded
payment for a 50-year lease be raised to $500 million, scrapping a 2004 contract
in which South Korean developers paid $16 million.
Pyongyang also refused to allow access to a detained South Korean engineer. The
Hyundai Asan Corp. employee was taken custody in March on accusations of
criticizing the North's political system and trying to persuade a local female
employee at the joint park to defect to the South.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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