South, North Korea set to meet over joint industrial venture

By Kim Hyun

SEOUL, April 21 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean delegation left for North Korea on Tuesday for the first official inter-Korean dialogue in over a year to discuss a troubled joint-industrial complex amid frozen political relations.

Pyongyang proposed the talks last week with an ambiguous statement that it had an
"important notice" to announce regarding the complex on its soil, where a South
Korean worker is being held for a fourth week.
Seoul was hoping to hear about the employee of Hyundai Asan Corp., a South Korean
company that operates the complex, but prepared for all potential scenarios as
the political climate remains jittery.
Tensions rose sharply after the North launched what it called a satellite on
April 5, a move the U.N. Security Council quickly condemned as violating a U.N.
resolution barring its ballistic activity. Pyongyang protested by withdrawing
from nuclear disarmament talks and expelling international monitors from its main
nuclear facility.
Risking further confrontation with Pyongyang, Seoul said it plans to enlarge its
role in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) aimed at
interdicting the flow of weapons of mass destruction.
For the first official inter-Korean talks during the Lee Myung-bak
administration, a seven-member delegation led by Kim Young-tak, director general
of the Kaesong Industrial Complex Project Bureau under Seoul's Unification
Ministry, crossed the border at 8:45 a.m. for the meeting at the joint complex.
Kim did not respond to reporters' questions at the Inter-Korean Transit Office.
Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said on Monday that Seoul will try to ensure the
dialogue is "helpful for the safety of our citizens and the stable development of
the Kaesong industrial complex," an apparent reference to the detained worker.
A positive outcome of the talks, which watchers say is unlikely, would be that
the North announces his release.
The employee, in his 40s and identified only by his surname Yu, was detained by
the North on March 30 on charges of criticizing Pyongyang's political system and
trying to incite a female North Korean worker to defect. The North has so far not
allowed access to the worker.
Cho Bong-hyun, a North Korea analyst with South Korean lender IBK and a frequent
visitor to North Korea, said the North will likely indict the South Korean to
raise tension and may even demand that all South Korean workers evacuate the
joint venture in retaliation against Seoul's conservative pro-U.S. policy.
"Chances are they will be saying, 'These are the results of our investigation,
and the crime is so grave he has to be tried here," Cho said, citing sources
involved in the Kaesong venture. "There could be a further warning, such as
ordering all South Korean workers to leave the complex unless Seoul makes a big
compromise," he added.
The joint venture, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is the last remaining
inter-Korean reconciliatory project launched by the previous Roh Moo-hyun
administration. More than 100 South Korean garment, utensil and other small
labor-intensive factories operate there, employing about 39,000 North Koreans.
The South Korean government and local businesses have invested 730 billion won
(US$548 million) into the venture since it opened in 2005.
Other joint economic projects, including tour programs to scenic sites in North
Korea, were all suspended after Lee took office in February last year. Pyongyang
also cut off all government-level talks with Seoul.
The dialogue also comes in the midst of heightened warnings from North Korea over
Seoul's participation in the PSI. "The Lee group of traitors should never forget
that Seoul is just 50 km away from the Military Demarcation Line," the North's
military warned over the weekend. The statement referred to Seoul's plan to fully
join the PSI, launched in 2003 and known to target North Korea among others.
Seoul, currently an observer in the campaign, said recently that it would join
the PSI but has since continued to drag its feet in making an official
announcement, mindful of Pyongyang's possible provocations.
Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea studies professor at Dongguk University in Seoul,
said Pyongyang will attempt to force Seoul to choose between the PSI and the
Kaesong complex.
"The military warning on the PSI followed the dialogue proposal," he said. "The
North may technically restrict the talks to the Kaesong industrial complex, but
it could ultimately force Seoul to choose between the PSI and the complex."
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 the two, but Pyongyang has said it will indict them on charges of
illegally entering the country and committing "hostile acts."
The detention of the reporters and the South Korean employee have added to
growing tensions over North Korea's rocket launch. Pyongyang insists the launch
was part of its peaceful space program, while outside experts say it was a
disguise for a test of the North's long-range missile technology.
North Korea protested the U.N. response by withdrawing from the six-way talks
that also involve South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia and expelling
inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency who have been monitoring
its Yongbyon nuclear facility.