N. Korea toughens probe of detained S. Korean worker

(ATTN: RECASTS lead, headline; ADDS S. Korean response, background; RESTRUCTURES)
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, May 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Friday it is deepening its
investigation into a South Korean worker detained at a joint industrial complex
for over a month.
The detention began March 30, when North Korea accused the employee of Hyundai
Asan of criticizing its political system and trying to lure a local female worker
into defecting.
About 100 labor-intensive South Korean companies operate in the border city of
Kaesong, employing nearly 40,000 North Korean workers. Hyundai Asan is the main
developer of the complex that is the last remaining reconciliatory project
between the Koreas.
"A competent institution is now carrying on a deep-going investigation into the
case," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, quoting an
unidentified spokesman for the Central Special Zone Development Guidance General
Bureau.
"The DPRK's law does not show any mercy to anyone violating its dignity," it
said, using the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
South Korea, whose officials have been denied access to the man it would only
identify by last name Yu, said it will continue to demand North Korea promptly
release the worker.
"This is an important issue that will significantly influence the future
development of the Kaesong complex," Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman for the
Unification Ministry, said. "North Korea needs to understand how serious this
issue is."
According to the North, "Yu malignantly slandered the dignified system in the
DPRK," while "perpetrating grave acts in infringement upon the sovereignty of the
DPRK and violation of the relevant law."
Without further elaboration, the communist state also warned of "consequences"
should South Korean authorities continue to raise allegations of human rights
abuse over the detention.
"If they continue behaving like this, this will only render the situation graver,
doing nothing good" to the Kaesong complex, it said.
The relations between the Koreas, which fought the 1950-53 Korean War that ended
in a truce, remain at their lowest point in a decade after President Lee
Myung-bak took office in Seoul early last year with a disciplinary stance on
Pyongyang.
North Korea has since dismissed all South Korean offers for talks while
threatening an armed conflict along their heavily armed border.
Pyongyang further raised tension this week by threatening to test a nuclear bomb
and missiles should the U.N. Security Council fail to withdraw its condemnation
of its April 5 rocket launch.
North Korea continues to detain U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from the
San Francisco-based Current TV, whom it says illegally entered its territory
along the border with China in March.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)