N. Korea okays cross-border visit by S. Korean delegates

(ATTN: UPDATES with approval of visit; ADDS background throughout)
SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Yonhap) -- Just three days after threatening the South, North
Korea on Monday approved a scheduled visit by South Korean delegates to its
industrial border town of Kaesong, an official here said, clearing the last
hurdle to this year's first official meeting between the divided countries.

The sides are set to hold a meeting on Tuesday at the Kaesong industrial park,
north of the inter-Korean border, to discuss ways to improve their joint
management of the complex.
Pyongyang recently threatened a military campaign against the South over Seoul's
reported contingency plan on the North's future.
Chun Hae-sung, spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, said North Korea
has approved a visit by nine South Korean delegates and seven other individuals
to assist them to Kaesong.
"The South Korean officials will cross the military demarcation line Tuesday
morning to visit Kaesong," Chun told reporters.
Just days after the North agreed to the meeting to discuss the results of a joint
inspection of overseas industrial towns, the communist state threatened Friday to
go ahead with a "sacred" military campaign against the South over a contingency
plan that Seoul had reportedly prepared in case of the North's possible collapse.
The South Korean government has denied devising such a contingency plan.
The talks would mark the first direct dialogue this year between the two
countries, whose relations have deteriorated since South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak took office in early 2008 with a pledge to tie reconciliation to
progress in North Korean denuclearization.
In its New Year's message on Jan. 1, North Korea expressed a willingness to
restore the relations. On Jan. 14, North Korea offered a round of talks with the
South on ways to resume cross-border tours that were suspended after a South
Korean tourist was shot to death at the Mount Keumgang resort in June 2008. Seoul
has yet to decide whether it will accept the proposal.
A 10-member delegation from each side visited Chinese and Vietnamese industrial
complexes from Dec. 12-22 to explore ways to enhance their joint management of
the factory park in Kaesong.
Some 110 South Korean firms operate there, employing about 42,000 North Korean
workers, to produce mostly labor-intensive goods such as electronics, clothing
and kitchenware.
South Korea's chief delegate to the joint survey -- the third of its kind since
the Kaesong park opened in 2004 -- said last month that Seoul and Pyongyang had
reached consensus during the trip that their joint park should become
"internationally competitive."
The fate of the park came into question early last year amid deteriorating
political relations and North Korean demands to sharply raise wages and land fees
paid by South Korean firms.
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