South, North Korea may meet again as early as next week: official

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, UPDATES with spokesman's briefing)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, May 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will "soon" respond to the North's proposal
to begin negotiations over a joint industrial park, and the meeting may take
place as early as next week, a spokesman said Thursday.

Pyongyang proposed in government-level talks on April 21 that the two sides open
negotiations to discuss wage hikes and contract revisions for the joint park in
the North's border town of Kaesong.
"Our government will soon send our proposal on the date," Unification Ministry
spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun told reporters.
He refused to go into details, such as when the offer will be made and what date
Seoul will propose for the talks, saying only that the meeting may take place
"during next week at the earliest."
Seoul has put off a decision on setting up the talks, with North Korea refusing
to discuss its main agenda.
A South Korean worker is detained by North Korea in Kaesong for a sixth week on
charges of criticizing the North's political system.
In the previous talks that lasted only 22 minutes, Pyongyang refused to discuss
the detained Hyundai Asan Corp. employee. It instead complained that wages South
Korean firms pay to North Korean workers are too low and that general contracts
are unfair. North Korea also demanded South Korean firms start paying for land
use from next year, four years ahead of schedule.
In 2004 contracts it signed with the South Korean government and Hyundai Asan,
the major developer of the joint park, North Korea agreed to lease the park for
free for 10 years.
"Our government position is that the next talks should be able to ensure the
safety of our citizens (in Kaesong) and the stable development of the Kaesong
park," Lee Jong-joo, the ministry's deputy spokeswoman, said.
The Kaesong complex, just an hour's drive from Seoul, opened in late 2004 as an
outcome of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
promised to then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to develop the border town
into an inter-Korean industrial venture.
More than 100 South Korean firms now operate there, producing clothes, utensils,
electronic equipment and other labor-intensive products with about 39,000 North
Korean workers.
Damaged political relations have periodically threatened the project's existence.
North Korea banned South Korean traffic to the park several times in March to
protest a joint-military exercise with the U.S.
Concerns are running high that North Korea may not intend to negotiate, but
instead force Seoul to either accept its demands or shut down the joint park.
Sources said North Korea sent a document on Monday complaining of Seoul's
procrastination and demanding the negotiations start on Wednesday. Seoul rejected
the offer in order to take more time for preparations, they said, requesting
anonymity.
The April 21 talks were the first government-level meeting since President Lee
Myung-bak took office in February last year. Pyongyang suspended dialogue with
Seoul after Lee took a tougher stance on North Korea's nuclear program and ended
the unconditional flow of economic aid to the North.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)