Koreas sign wage accord on joint park

SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea agreed to a 5 percent wage hike
at a joint industrial park on Wednesday, the Unification Ministry here said, in
the latest sign of inter-Korean projects returning to normal.
North Korea earlier demanded a 400 percent raise in monthly wages for its workers
at the South Korean-run park in Kaesong, just north of the border.
South Korea's management office in Kaesong "signed an agreement on a 5 percent
wage increase" with its North Korean counterpart, ministry spokesman Chun
Hae-sung said in a brief statement.
The North voluntarily withdrew its earlier demand last week in a striking shift
from its unyielding attitude in four rounds of negotiations from April to July.
The demand called for monthly wages be raised to US$300 from the average $70-80,
apparently in retaliation against Seoul's hard-line policy toward Pyongyang.
The Kaesong park opened in late 2004 as an outcome of the first inter-Korean
summit four years earlier. It houses 114 mostly small-sized South Korean firms
producing clothing, electronic equipment, kitchenware and other labor-intensive
goods with about 40,000 North Korean workers.
The venture is seen as a much-needed source of dollar income for the North, which
is currently under U.N. sanctions for its May nuclear test that bans cash flows
to the country.
The 5 percent rate hike will increase the minimum wage to about $58 from the
current $55.
Separately, North Korea was conducting a door-to-door survey on South Korean
businesses at the joint park, said ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo.
North Korea asserted that the two-day survey that continues until Thursday was to
examine the firms' output and "listen to their complaints and difficulties
regarding tax and accounting," Lee said. Such on-site surveys have been done
sporadically, she added.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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