By Kang Seung-woo
South Korea plans to propose talks with North Korea to discuss wages and labor issues at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) that the North recently unilaterally revised without the consent of employers here, the Ministry of Unification said Friday.
“The government plans to offer consultations with the North in order to resolve this," ministry deputy spokeswoman Park Soo-jin said in a briefing.
“The timing has not yet been decided yet."
The move comes after the totalitarian state apprised the South last week of its intention to revise 13 out of 49 articles in an agreement on working conditions at the joint industrial park in the North.
This includes the scrapping of a 5-percent cap on annual rises in minimum wages and hikes in overtime payment for more than 50,000 North Korean workers in 123 small- and medium-sized companies.
Seoul has refused to accept the decision because the two Koreas are supposed to discuss all issues related to GIC operations through a joint management committee.
North Korean workers’ wages at the factory park have gained 5 percent every year since 2007. They are currently paid $70.35 each month. If a set of allowances and incentives is included, wages reach $130, reportedly about 50 percent higher than the average income of workers in North Korea.
Although the South’s government tried to deliver a message regarding its formal position on the matter, Pyongyang refused to accept it.
Earlier this week, a group of South Korean businessmen with factories there also filed a formal complaint with the North over the issue.
The complex, established in 2004 following the historic first inter-Korean summit between the late former President Kim Dae-jung and the late former dictator Kim Jong-il in 2000, is the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation.
Meanwhile, the ministry said that it would closely watch the North’s recent conciliatory moves.
On Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to make active efforts to achieve unification of the Korean Peninsula in a letter to Lee Hee-ho, former President Kim’s widow.