N. Korea sanctions S. Korean firm at joint complex for pollution

SEOUL, March 5 (Yonhap) -- The North Korean government has penalized a South
Korean firm at the Kaesong industrial complex by banning local employees from
working there, Seoul officials said Thursday, amid mounting border tension.

The sanction marks the first time for the North to penalize a South Korean
company for pollution time since the complex opened in 2005.
The Kaesong complex, located several kilometers north of the inter-Korean border
near the west coast, is a major reconciliatory economic project built after the
first inter-Korean summit in 2000. It joins the capital and technology of over 90
South Korean firms with North Korea's cheap but skilled labor.
In December, North Korea cut the number of South Koreans allowed to stay in
Kaesong in half amid Pyongyang's retaliations against conservative President
Myung-bak's hard-line policy.
In the first direct sanction, North Korea's management authorities issued an
order in mid-February citing air pollution and barring local employees of
Myungjin Chemical Co., an electronic plating firm, from returning to work, Seoul
officials said.
"The North first gave notices to the firm about air quality before it issued the
sanction," an official of the Ministry of Unification said, requesting anonymity.

The official could not say whether the penalty has any political reason.
The firm still operates its automatic processing division, but its manual
division, comprising some 20 percent of the entire operation, has been suspended,
officials said.
South Korean environmental experts will soon leave for Kaesong to survey the
firm's work environment and decide whether it violates international standards,
they said.
Industrial output at Kaesong, where 38,200 North Koreans produce kitchenware,
watches, clothes and other labor-intensive goods, reached US$251.4 million won
last year, up 36 percent from US$184.8 million won in 2007.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)