N. Korea to reconsider joint industrial complex operated by S. Korean firms: official

SEOUL, April 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea told the South that it will consider
ending benefits for South Korean firms at a joint complex on its soil, including
low wages for North Korean employees, a government source said Tuesday.

South and North Korean officials met at the industrial complex in the North's
border town of Kaesong for their first talks in more than a year, but the meeting
ended quickly, officials said.
In a document given to the South, North Korea said it will reconsider the
"special benefits" it guarantees to South Korean companies, the source said,
requesting anonymity.
Seoul's seven-member delegation, led by Kim Young-tak, director general of the
Kaesong Industrial Complex Project Bureau under the Unification Ministry,
traveled to the North's border town of Kaesong earlier in the day for the first
inter-Korean talks since President Lee Myung-bak took office in February last
year.
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 small South Korean factories operate there,
employing about 39,000 North Koreans, who churn out garments, utensils and other
small, labor-intensive items.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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