Hyundai Group chief on way to Pyongyang over detained worker

(ATTN: UPDATES with Hyundai spokesman's quote on departure set for 2 p.m.)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- The chief of Hyundai Group will travel to Pyongyang on
Monday to discuss the release of an employee who has been detained by North Korea
since March, the company spokesman said.

Speculation has been growing that North Korea may free the worker, only
identified by his surname Yu, within the week, in line with its recent pardoning
of two American journalists granted during former U.S. President Bill Clinton's
visit.
Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun is expected to leave for North Korea at
around 2 p.m. over the demilitarized zone, said Kim Ha-young, a spokesman for
Hyundai Asan Corp., the North Korean business arm of Hyundai Group.
"Hyun leaves around that time, but I have to check her schedule after that," Kim
said.
The spokesman added that he did not know how long Hyun would stay in North Korea.
Others with the company said it was yet to be decided whether she will be granted
a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as she was during her Pyongyang
visit in 2007.
The South Korean worker with Hyundai Asan was detained on March 30 at a joint
industrial park in the North's border town of Kaesong where he had been working
for years.
In a May 1 statement, North Korea said an investigation was underway, saying Yu
"malignantly slandered the dignified system in the DPRK (North Korea) ...
perpetrating grave acts of infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and in
violation of the relevant law."
Seoul officials said they also heard from North Korea that Yu was accused of
trying to persuade a local woman to defect to the South.
In contrast to the American journalists who were allowed phone calls to family
and consular contact, North Korea has not granted any outside access to Yu during
his detention.
The Hyundai spokesman said the group submitted a request for government approval
of Hyun's Pyongyang visit Sunday night. Unification Ministry spokesman Chun
Hae-sung, reached by phone early in the morning, said the ministry will make a
decision within hours.
"It will be put to review this morning, and we will let you know in a briefing
session" scheduled for 10:30 a.m., he said.
Also on Monday, Cho Kun-shik, the chief of Hyundai Asan and Yu's direct boss, was
scheduled to travel to the Kaesong industrial park, company officials said.
Hyundai is the major developer of the Kaesong park, which was opened in late 2004
marrying South Korean technology and capital with North Korean labor. More than
100 South Korean firms operate there with about 40,000 North Korean workers,
producing clothing, kitchenware, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive
goods. Yu's detention has chilled business sentiment there.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)