(3rd LD) Hyundai chief extends Pyongyang visit seeking worker's release

(ATTN: CHANGES headline, official's quote; COMBINES with the previous story on
extension)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- The chairwoman of South Korea's Hyundai Group,
visiting North Korea to bring a detained employee home, extended her stay by one
day, her company said Tuesday, as progress in the negotiations appeared to have
been delayed.

Hyun Jung-eun was scheduled to return home Wednesday after a three-day visit to
Pyongyang, during which she was largely expected to meet with North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il to win the worker's release.
"We received the message from Hyun's entourage in Pyongyang that her return will
be put off until Thursday," a Hyundai spokesman, Kim Ha-young, said over the
phone.
The reason for the extension was not immediately known.
It appeared that Hyun has not yet met with the North Korean leader, said
Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo. Hyundai requested government
approval for the trip extension Tuesday night, and "there are no particular
reasons not to approve," Lee said.
Hyun drove across the inter-Korean land border Monday in the wake of former U.S.
President Bill Clinton's trip to Pyongyang last week to win the release of two
American journalists. Hyun's visit raised hopes that the Hyundai employee,
identified only by his family name of Yu, would be released after a detention of
nearly four-and-a-half months.
Yu was detained in late March at a joint park in the North's border town of
Kaesong on accusations of criticizing the North's political system and trying to
persuade a local woman to defect to the South. The 44-year-old with Hyundai Asan
Corp., the group's North Korea business unit, had been working at the joint park
for years.
In contrast to the American reporters, who were detained for illegal entry in
mid-March, North Korea has not allowed Yu any phone calls to his family or access
to Seoul officials, only saying an investigation was underway.
In a positive sign, North Korea gave a hearty welcome to the Hyundai chief,
opening the land border for her drive to Pyongyang and sending a high-level
official, Ri Jong-hyok, to receive her.
Sources in Seoul said Hyun appeared to be staying at the Paekhwawon State Guest
House, North Korea's highest-level guest house reserved for foreign heads of
state and top dignitaries, judging from the background of a photograph of her
released by state media on Monday. Clinton stayed at the same guest house and
dined there with the North Korean leader.
Hyun stayed there during visits in 2005 and 2007, when she was granted a meeting
with the leader.
The high-profile trips by Clinton and the Hyundai chief have spurred hopes for
progress in political relations in the region. Tensions rose after North Korea's
rocket and nuclear tests earlier this year, and the U.N. Security Council adopted
resolutions to stem the cash flow used to fund the North's weapons program.
Pyongyang withdrew from regional denuclearization talks in protest.
Experts say North Korea's key concern is improving relations with the U.S., and
to that end it is necessary to mend ties with Seoul.
Hyundai is deeply involved in inter-Korean relations, with several North Korea
ventures initiated by its late founder Chung Ju-yung, born in North Korea. But
the ventures hit a snag as political ties unraveled after President Lee Myung-bak
took office last year with a tougher stance on North Korea's nuclear program and
on economic aid.
The South Korean government suspended Hyundai's major tourism program to North
Korea's Mount Kumgang in July last year after a female tourist was shot dead by a
North Korean solider there.
North Korea closed another Hyundai tour program to the historic border town of
Kaesong in December as part of retaliatory steps against the South's hard-line
posture.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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