N. Korea demanded sharp pay rise for Kaesong workers: report

SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea demanded a more than three-fold wage hike
for its workers at a joint industrial complex with South Korea when officials
from the sides met there for talks earlier this week, Pyongyang's official media
said Wednesday.
The Unification Ministry in Seoul disputed the report, saying that North Korea
did not specify its demand concerning a pay raise during Monday's talks held in
its border town of Kaesong.
The monthly wage for a North Korean worker at the Kaesong industrial complex
remains just under US$58. Citing an interview with an unidentified North Korean
negotiator, the official Web site of a North Korean reunification organ,
Uriminzokkiri, claimed that its side demanded a monthly pay raise of over US$200
for each North Korean worker.
The current monthly wage is "so tiny that it would not even buy a single meal,"
the official was quoted as saying.
Some 110 South Korean firms operate in the park located on the outskirts of the
town, employing 42,000 local workers and producing mostly labor-intesive products
such as utensils and garments.
Begun in 2004, the factory park is one of the last remaining projects symbolizing
reconciliation efforts between the divided states after they held their first
summit four years earlier.
Seoul says Pyongyang must first lift border restrictions slowing South Korean
transportation and communications in and out of the park. It also says wages can
be negotiated after progress is made in the construction of a facility to house
North Korean workers.
"Pay is directly related to productivity, which can be improved only if
infrastructure and facilities are improved," the chief South Korean delegate, Kim
Young-tak, told reporters on Monday.
The Koreas, which remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in
a truce, have held two rounds of talks this year on improving their joint
operation of the complex. They have yet to reach an agreement on a date for
another round.
(END)