S Korean businessmen meet with North over industrial park row

SEOUL: A group of 14 South Korean businessmen held talks with North Korean officials yesterday on how to resolve an escalating row over wages for workers at the Kaesong joint industrial zone. Pyongyang last month announced it would raise the basic salary of some 54,000 North Korean workers employed across 125 South Korean firms in the complex as of the end of last year. The South rejected the idea, citing an existing agreement that any wage rise had to be agreed by a joint committee overseeing the management of the park.

It offered talks to discuss the issue but the North refused, saying it had no need to consult with the South and a “legitimate and normal” right to amend working conditions in Kaesong, which lies in the North just over the border. The businessmen, led by Chung KiSup, head of the council of South Korean firms operating in Kaesong, had a rare twohour meeting with North Korean officials, Yonhap news agency reported. But North Korean officials reportedly refused to receive a protest letter carried by the businessmen.

Chung told reporters after he returned from Kaesong that his group expressed concern that the wage row was eroding investors’ trust, Yonhap said. The companies are in a dilemma as the South Korean government has made it clear that they will be penalized if they yield to pressure from the North. The North’s proposal would increase the average amount the South pays for each workerincluding allowances, welfare and overtimefrom $155 to $164 monthly.

Anti-Pyongyang leaflets

Separately, a row over the launch of antiPyongyang leaflets from the South has cast a shadow over the park’s fate. The leaflets are scheduled to be sent by propaganda balloon on around Thursday, March 26, to mark the five-year anniversary of the sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010, with the loss of 46 sailors, which the South blamed on the North.

South Korean activists say they will also sneak copies of satirical Hollywood movie “The Interview” across the border, in defiance of North Korea’s repeated threats of retaliation through military means. Kaesong businessmen say the North’s anger at the planned launches is behind the row over wages. The South insists the activists have a democratic right to send the leaflets, but has appealed for restraint to avoid overly provoking the North. In October last year North Korean border guards attempted to shoot down some balloons, triggering a brief exchange of heavy machine-gun fire between the two sides.

Local residents living near the launch sites have complained that the activists are putting their lives at risk by making them potential targets for North Korean retaliation. Kaesong businessmen downplayed their concerns that there might be a repeat of a 2013 crisis when the North effectively closed down the park for five months following a surge in military tensions. Many of the firms, manufacturers of low-priced household goods, are still reeling from financial losses from the shutdown, estimated to be up to $1 billion. The zone, a rare symbol of cross-border cooperation, had previously been spared the fallout from eruptions in ties between the two Koreas.— AFP