Hyundai Asian chief to visit N. Korea Monday

SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- The head of Hyundai Asan Corp. will travel to North
Korea on Monday, company officials said, amid rising speculation that its
employee detained in the North may be freed.

"President Cho Kun-shik will visit the city of Kaesong on Monday by crossing over
the military demarcation line around 9:00 a.m.," an official at Hyundai Asan, an
operator of inter-Korean economic projects, said Sunday.
North Korea has detained a South Korean worker, only identified by his family
name Yu, at the inter-Korean industrial complex in the North's border town of
Kaesong since late March on accusations of insulting the North's political system
and trying to persuade a local woman to defect to the South.
Cho is expected to stay at the North possibly throughout the week, the company
said, which is raising hopes that his visit may be aimed at holding final
negotiations with the North to win the release of the detained employee.
The planned visit comes as former U.S. President Bill Clinton made a historic
trip to the communist country last week to bring home two American journalists.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee were granted a special pardon by North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il after having been detained since mid-March for crossing illegally into
the North.
During his visit, Clinton pressed North Korea to free South Koreans including Yu
and four crew members of a fishing boat on humanitarian grounds. The boat strayed
across the maritime border in the East Sea in late July.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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