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| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| Two Koreas fail to agree on future of joint project | |
| 2009-06-23 | |
| SEOUL (AFP) – North and South Korea failed to reach agreement in talks Friday on the fate of a joint industrial estate which is their last remaining reconciliation project, officials said. The South insisted it cannot accept demands for hundreds of millions of dollars in extra payments for the Kaesong estate just north of the heavily-fortified border, Seoul's unification ministry said. The North refused to discuss the fate of a South Korean employee it has detained since March 30, it said. "The two sides repeated their positions on key issues but there was no agreement," a ministry spokesman told AFP. The estate's future has become increasingly uncertain as North-South relations have worsened and the North's nuclear standoff with the outside world has intensified. The North's delegation denounced agreements reached at a US-South Korea summit earlier in the week, Yonhap news agency reported. However the two sides at the meeting in Kaesong agreed to meet again on July 2 and the North offered to ease curbs on cross-border traffic, the spokesman said. The South proposed a joint survey of industrial estates in third countries as part of efforts to turn Kaesong into an internationally viable operation. The communist state last week stunned Seoul by demanding a wage rise for its 40,000 workers at Kaesong to 300 dollars per month from around 75 dollars currently. It also demanded an increase in rent for the Seoul-funded estate to 500 million dollars, compared with the current 16 million dollars for a 50-year contract.
"But the North's delegation only said there was no problem with him and told us to convey its word to Mr. Yu's family." Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek acknowledged the venture is at a critical stage. "One step you take and one stone you lay in today's talks will be crucial to inter-Korean relations," he told the South's delegation before its departure in the morning. Representatives of the 106 South Korean firms at Kaesong, and President Lee, have rejected what they describe as excessive financial demands. "If Kaesong shuts down, 40,000 North Koreans would lose jobs," Lee said in Washington Tuesday. "This is why the North must stop making excessive demands, for its own interest." The impoverished communist North received 26 million dollars last year in wage payments. Yet some analysts say it may be willing to forgo the cash because it fears the effects of exposing its workers to the South Korean lifestyle. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Good, don't waste any more time and treasure on the NORKS. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-06-23 08:18 |