NK Wants Wages in Gaeseong Quadrupled
Seoul Asks for Release of Detained Worker
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
North Korea called on South Korea to hike the monthly wage of workers in a joint industrial complex in its territory from the current $70 to $300, according to an official Thursday.
South Korea's chief negotiator Kim Young-tak said the two sides agreed to meet again next Friday for further discussions.
``The North suggested that the South pay $500 million for the use of 1 million pyeong of land (one pyeong equals 3.3 square meters) in the Gaeseong complex and increase the monthly salary to $300,'' another government official said on condition of anonymity.
Pyongyang also called for payroll rises by 10 to 20 percent a year, he added.
The meeting, held at the Gaeseong complex, was the second inter-Korean government talks since President Lee Myung-bak's inauguration in February last year.
Seoul has yet to determine whether or not to accept Pyongyang's request.
Kim said that the government has to make a decision on the money issue after consultations with companies operating in the complex.
In the meantime, the South Korean delegation comprising five officials including Kim called on their North Korean counterparts to grant a meeting with a South Korean worker detained in the North for more than 70 days.
The 44-year-old identified as Yu was arrested late March for allegedly slandering the North Korean regime and attempting to entice a North Korean female worker to defect to the South.
The government called for the early release of the worker as the North has refused to allow South Korean officials and lawyers to meet him.
The South has stressed that it is essential to guarantee the safety of South Koreans in the industrial complex for stable and consistent development.
During two meetings ― which took place at 10:40 a.m. and 3 p.m. ― however, Pyongyang did not elaborate on the detainee issue, according to the chief negotiator.
``But Yu seems to be doing fine,'' Kim said, quoting North Korean officials he met.
In the first talks on April 21, the North indicated that it would demand an increase in wages and an earlier payment of rent.
After the two Koreas failed to set a date for a follow-up meeting last month, the secretive state announced all agreements regarding the operation of the industrial zone were invalid.
An expert in inter-Korean affairs speculated that North Korea is seemingly aiming at underlining extra benefits given to the complex.
``By demanding the increase of wage and rent, it paradoxically stresses that the North has offered special benefits so far,'' Professor Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told The Korea Times.
``My speculation is that the North will insist that it is up to the South whether to sustain the complex and will ask for the site to be cleared if the South cannot accept those demands,'' he added.