Divided Koreas hold talks on improving industrial cooperation amid tension

SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Yonhap) -- Despite lingering tension after North Korea threatened
to launch a "sacred" battle against South Korea, officials from the divided
countries sat down Tuesday at a joint industrial complex in the North and shared
suggestions on enhancing its operation, the Unification Ministry said.
The two-day talks in the North Korean border town of Kaesong marked the first
official contact this year between the sides that remain technically at war after
the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.
A team of 13 South Korean officials crossed the heavily guarded inter-Korean
border in the morning, arriving in Kaesong near the west coast to rendezvous with
their North Korean counterparts, ministry spokesperson Lee Jong-joo told
reporters.
"The meeting began as of 2:10 p.m.," she said. Nine South Korean officials took
part in the meeting held at an inter-Korean office for economic cooperation in
Kaesong.
The talks, a follow-up to their joint survey of industrial parks in China and
Vietnam last month, took place just days after the North warned of armed action
against the South over what one news agency here called a contingency plan in
case of a regime collapse in Pyongyang.
North Korea bristles at any suggestion of its failure. The South Korean
government denied the reports, but the North on Friday threatened "a sacred
nationwide retaliatory battle" in the first-ever statement released by its
National Defense Commission -- the highest political body controlled by Kim
Jong-il.
"Considering the importance of the role Kim has in the commission, we view the
statement as carrying considerable weight," a senior ministry official said,
speaking on the condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the matter. "But
we saw mixed messages from the North ahead of the Kaesong talks, and we'd like to
wait further and see."
Some 110 South Korean firms operate in Kaesong employing about 42,000 North
Korean workers, one of the most symbolic outcomes of the first-ever summit
between the countries in 2000.
Labor-intensive goods such as electronics, clothing and kitchenware make up the
bulk of items produced in the park, whose fate came into question last year after
relations between the Koreas deteriorated to their lowest level in recent
history.
In a New Year's message this year, North Korea declared its intent to improve
light industries and agriculture as part of a campaign to raise the standard of
living for its people. It also called for an end to hostilities with the United
States and described its willingness to reconcile with the South as "unshakable."
The focus on the economy intensified in the impoverished North after the regime
went ahead with the first redenomination of its currency in 17 years in a measure
that it said was aimed at taming inflation. Observers say the reform targeted
those accumulating wealth in market activities outside state purview while
assisting efforts to reassert government control over the faltering economy.
Speaking to reporters before crossing the military demarcation line on Tuesday,
Kim Young-tak, chief South Korean delegate to the talks in Kaesong, said he hoped
for "a chance to freely put out suggestions on improving the industrial park."
Kim had said after the joint offshore survey in December that the two sides
reached consensus on the need to make the Kaesong park internationally
competitive.
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.
The North focused on wage and insurance systems at the industrial parks, while
the South examined infrastructure, safety issues, tax benefits and customs
systems, Kim said.
(END)