Koreas fail to set up second talks amid dispute over detained worker

SEOUL, May 15 (Yonhap) -- Seoul officials were returning home Friday after days of unsuccessful negotiations in North Korea over a second round of official talks, as Pyongyang refused to discuss a detained South Korean worker, a spokesman said.

"There has been no progress," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said.
"They are scheduled to return later in the afternoon."
North Korea proposed government-level talks last month to discuss issues related
to an industrial complex jointly run with South Korea in the North's border town
of Kaesong. In the first round on April 21, North Korea demanded wage hikes and
contract revisions.
A three-member delegation traveled to Kaesong on Tuesday to set up the second
round. Of major concern for South Korea is the detained employee of Hyundai Asan
Corp., the developer of the joint park, who was arrested on March 30 on charges
of criticizing North Korea's political system.
"North Korean officials (in the discussions) said they were not authorized to
discuss the detention issue," Kim said.
South Korea proposed Friday as the date for the talks, but North Korea rejected
the date, Kim said. The tussling over the date was in fact a tug of war over the
agenda, and discussions may continue to narrow differences, he added.
Unification Minister Hyun In-taek earlier this week criticized the prolonged
detention as "an unwarranted violation of human rights."
North Korea said May 1 that the South is raising the rights issue "without
knowing about the essence of the case." The detained worker, identified by his
family name Yu, "malignantly slandered the dignified system of the DPRK(North
Korea)," the official Korean Central News Agency said, without specifying
charges.
Pyongyang has yet to give word about the fate of the South Korean. North Korea
said on Thursday that two U.S. female journalists detained for illegally entering
the country on March 17 will stand trial on June 4.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said setting the trial date may lead to
an early release of Euna Lee and Laura Ling.
"The trial date being set we view as a welcome time frame. But the fact that they
are now going to have some process we believe is a signal that there can be, and
I hope will be, a resolution as soon as possible," Clinton said.
Analysts suspect North Korea may follow in the footsteps of Iran, which released
an American journalist convicted of espionage on Monday. Pyongyang's state media
said diplomatic events are now underway to mark the Week of DPRK-Iran Friendship.
The Kaesong park, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is a major inter-Korean
reconciliatory symbol as an outcome of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000
between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il.
Despite its notable growth over the years, the joint venture has often fallen
victim to political aims. In the latest such case, North Korea banned South
Korean traffic to the joint park three times in March in protest of South Korea's
military exercise with the United States.
More than 100 South Korean firms now operate at the Kaesong venture, producing
clothes, utensils, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive products with
nearly 40,000 North Korean workers.
South Korean firms pay about $70-$80 in monthly wages for each North Korean
employee, but the payment is directly wired to North Korean government accounts.
Pyongyang suspended dialogue with Seoul after South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak took office in February last year, taking a tougher stance on North
Korea's nuclear program and ending the unconditional flow of economic aid to the
North.