NORTH KOREA-SOUTH KOREA/KAESONG-DEPARTURE South Korean officials leave for talks with North Korea in joint industrial park amid wage dispute

Record ID: 146932

  • Title: NORTH KOREA-SOUTH KOREA/KAESONG-DEPARTURE South Korean officials leave for talks with North Korea in joint industrial park amid wage dispute
  • Date: 16th July 2015
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (JULY 16, 2015) (REUTERS) **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **** DIRECTOR GENERAL OF INTER KOREAN COOPERATION DISTRICT POLICY PLANNING DIRECTORATE, LEE SANG-MIN, SPEAKING TO MEDIA LEE AND SOUTH KOREAN OFFICIALS LEAVING LEE AND SOUTH KOREAN OFFICIALS GETTING INTO BUS BUS CARRYING LEE AND SOUTH KOREAN OFFICIALS DRIVING OFF
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7ACL4VPHGT5JIWE0TINLIJPT
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: South Korean officials left for North Korea on Thursday (July 16) to hold talks on the Kaesong joint industrial park in the North over the North's unilateral move to raise wages for its workers at the complex.
    The Kaesong industrial complex, located a few kilometres north of their heavily fortified border, has been a much-needed source of income for the impoverished North and a cheap source of workers for labour-intensive South Korean firms.
    The North Korean agency that supervises the complex has demanded an increase of about $3.65 in the minimum monthly wage for its workers, to $74 a month.
    South Korea has rejected the demand, saying the unilateral increase violated agreements. North Korea has said it has the sovereign right to raise wages at Kaesong.
    Last week, South Korea's Unification Ministry said the two Koreas agreed to hold a meeting of a joint committee in charge of running Kaesong Industrial Park, which has been halted for a year, in Kaesong to discuss the issues.
    "A meeting of the (joint) committee will resume in a year from today. We will discuss current issues for normalization and development of the Kaesong industrial park and try to achieve desired results," said Lee Sang-min, Director General of Inter Korean Cooperation District Policy Planning Directorate, upon his departure to North Korea on Thursday for the meeting with four other officials.
    The complex has operated for a decade but there have been persistent questions about its viability given the political tension between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war.
    South Korea currently has 124 companies operating in the zone, most of them small- and medium-sized firms, employing 53,000 relatively cheap North Korean workers.
    Kaesong is the last remaining symbol of economic cooperation between the rival states.
    North Korea shut down the complex for five months in 2013, during a period of diplomatic tension, and dialogue between the two sides on its operations have been patchy for years.
    In September, the North introduced a regulation allowing it to detain South Koreans if their companies failed to live up to their contracts, and if seizing property did not cover losses.
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