S. Korean officials to visit N. Korean complex over detained worker

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, April 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korean officials were set to visit a joint
industrial complex in North Korea on Friday to try to secure the release of a
worker detained there amid mounting cross-border tensions, a spokesperson said.
North Korea has been holding an employee of Hyundai Asan Corp., the developer of
the industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong, since March 30,
accusing him of criticizing its political system and trying to tempt a North
Korean female employee to defect.
Seoul's efforts to gain access to the worker, identified only as an engineer in
his 40s, have made little headway, as tensions with the North remain high after
its firing of a long-range rocket and subsequent condemnation by the U.N.
Security Council this month.
In a move certain to further raise tensions, South Korea plans to announce its
full participation in a U.S.-led anti-proliferation drive as early as this
weekend, which Pyongyang has warned would be tantamount to a "declaration of war"
against it.
With no word from North Korea yet, Moon Moo-hong, chairman of Kaesong Industrial
District Management Committee, a state-run body overseeing the joint complex, and
Cho Kun-shik, president of Hyundai Asan, were scheduled to travel to the Kaesong
venture later Friday morning to try to negotiate the worker's release.
"There is no change yet in the situation, but we need to wait and assess the
result of their visit," Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said.
The Kaesong complex was closed on Wednesday and Thursday as North Koreans
celebrated their biggest holiday, the "Day of Sun" marking the birthday of their
country's late founder Kim Il-sung on April 15, 1912.
"Today and tomorrow would be crucial. The longer the detention continues, the
more serious the situation would become," Lee said.
After several delays, South Korea planned to announce its participation in the
U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative drive as early as Sunday. Sources said
the government was making a last-minute review of the timing in consideration of
its relations with North Korea.
The PSI, initiated by the George W. Bush administration in 2003 and now
participated in by 94 member states, is aimed at interdicting and seizing ships
and planes suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction and related
materials. North Korea, known for exporting weapons and technology, is understood
to be one of the main targets.
Amid concerns that Seoul's PSI decision may prompt North Korea's retaliation over
the detained worker, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek reasserted the
government's position that its goal is not to specifically target North Korea.
"Any country that opposes the spread of weapons of mass destruction should show
it's making efforts to prevent it (proliferation), and we are making those
efforts and we are not doing this specifically targeting North Korea," Hyun said
in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday.
Hyun also said Seoul is working through China and other diplomatic channels that
have relations with Pyongyang to secure the worker's release.
The North is also holding two female U.S. journalists who were arrested near its
border with China last month. Pyongyang said they will be tried in North Korea on
charges of illegal entry and "hostile acts." Washington officials said the U.S.
government is dealing with the issue through the Swedish mission in Pyongyang, as
the two countries have no diplomatic relations.
North Korea upped the gambit by expelling inspectors from International Atomic
Energy Agency who have been monitoring the country's main nuclear facility,
declaring its withdrawal from six-nation denuclearization talks and restoration
of a nuclear reactor that was being disabled. The inspectors left Pyongyang on
Thursday.
North Korea said it will "never" return to the six-party negotiations in a
statement this week, after the U.N. Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket
launch, which Pyongyang says was part of its peaceful space development program.
The Kaesong complex, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is a major outcome of the
first inter-Korean talks in 2000 that opened doors for the two Koreas toward
economic, political and cultural cooperation despite their status as technically
still at war, having only signed an armistice at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean
War.
More than 100 South Korean garments, utensils and other labor-intensive firms are
operating in Kaesong with about 39,000 North Korean workers.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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