S. Korea readies for first meeting with North in year amid gloomy outlook

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, April 20 (Yonhap) -- A seven-member South Korean delegation is set to
visit the North for the first cross-border talks in over a year, a spokesman said
Monday, as grim forecasts prevailed amid high-toned threats from Pyongyang.

The meeting set for Tuesday -- the first government-level dialogue in the Lee
Myung-bak administration -- comes amid heightened military tension across the
border, following the North's rocket launch and warnings against Seoul's move to
join a U.S.-led security campaign.
The delegation, led by Kim Young-tak, director general of the Kaesong Industrial
Complex Project Bureau, will cross the border at around 9 a.m. for the meeting at
the joint venture in the North's border town of Kaesong, said Unification
Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun.
Seoul officials could not say what the North would bring up to the meeting,
except to quote North Korea's message that said that it will involve "issues
related to the Kaesong industrial complex." Pyongyang offered the meeting
Thursday, and Seoul accepted it on Sunday.
"Our government is preparing for what measures to take in various ways," Kim said
in a briefing. "Our goal is that this inter-Korean meeting should be held in a
way that is helpful for the safety of our citizens and stable development of the
Kaesong industrial complex."
Seoul is hoping to hear from Pyongyang about a South Korean worker detained in
the joint complex, but watchers are skeptical about any positive developments.
The employee of Hyundai Asan Corp., the developer of the Kaesong venture, has
been detained by the North since March 30 for allegedly criticizing North Korea's
political system and trying to tempt a female North Korean worker to defect. The
North did not allow access to the worker, whose name was withheld for privacy and
only known as an engineer in his 40s.
Watchers note the general climate is too negative to expect a breakthrough. The
ministry spokesman said the North "proposed" the meeting, but ministry sources
requesting anonymity said the message was more of a unilateral notification, in
which Pyongyang said it will notify Seoul of "an important matter." North Korea
has yet to say who will be attending the dialogue.
North Korea's military sharpened its threat against Seoul over the weekend,
saying "The Lee group of traitors should never forget that Seoul is just 50 km
away from the Military Demarcation Line," along which North Korean artillery is
dispatched. The warning referred to Seoul's plan to fully join a U.S.-led
campaign against the spread of weapons of mass destruction, whose main targets
include North Korea.
Seoul has said it will join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) but
continued to drag its feet, mindful of Pyongyang's possible provocations.
After much hesitation, Seoul, currently an observer in the PSI, again delayed its
announcement to fully join the U.S.-led campaign on Saturday.
Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies said Pyongyang will force
Seoul to choose between the PSI and the Kaesong complex. He recounted that
Pyongyang offered military dialogue before curtailing traffic to the joint
venture in December -- its first retaliatory measure against the Kaesong park to
protest Lee's conservative, pro-U.S. policy.
"The North used the military dialogue to notify its sanctions. The pattern now is
the same," Yang said, "It will put South Korea at a crossroads -- whether to join
the PSI or let North Korea completely sever relations with it."
The industrial complex, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is the last remaining
inter-Korean reconciliatory venture. More than 100 South Korean manufacturers of
garments, utensils and other small labor-intensive factories operate there,
employing about 39,000 North Koreans. The Seoul government and South Korean
businesses have invested 730 billion won (US$548 million) into the venture since
it opened in 2005. The North Korean government received $26 million from South
Korean firms last year, according to ministry data.
Other joint economic projects, including tour programs to scenic sites in North
Korea, were all suspended last year. Pyongyang also cut off all government-level
talks with Seoul.
North Korea is also holding two female American journalists who were detained
near its border with China on March 17. Washington has said dialogue is underway
to free them.
The two detention cases have added to the growing tensions resulting from North
Korea's recent rocket launch. Defying international warnings, Pyongyang fired a
long-range rocket on April 5 and said it has orbited a satellite as part of its
peaceful space program.
Outside monitors said no such object entered space.
The U.N. Security Council issued a condemnation saying the launch violated a U.N.
resolution banning the North from ballistic activity. South Korea, the U.S. and
Japan viewed the launch as a disguise for a test of the North's long-range
missile technology.
North Korea protested the U.N. response by withdrawing from six-way nuclear
disarmament talks and expelling inspectors from the International Atomic Energy
Agency who have been monitoring the country's main nuclear facility.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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