NORTH KOREA NEWSLETTER NO. 67 (August 13, 2009)

*** TOPIC OF THE WEEK (Part 1)

All Eyes on Hyundai Chief's Possible Meeting with N. Korean Leader

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Hyundai Group chairwoman extended her trip to
Pyongyang one more day Aug. 13 to negotiate the release of a South Korean worker
detained there and possibly break the icy relations between the two countries.

The reason for the extension was not immediately known, but it was largely
believed she was waiting for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Hyun Jung-eun crossed into North Korea Aug. 10 seeking to free the 44-year-old
Hyundai employee working in the Kaesong industrial complex. But her rare trip
draws keen attention to a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim, as it
will signal a breakthrough in stalled inter-Korean relations, as well as the
solution to the detainee case.
As of the morning of Aug. 13, North Korea remained silent about the anticipated
meeting between the North Korean leader and the visiting Hyundai chairwoman. The
extension of her stay in the North is the second following one Aug. 12. She was
originally scheduled to return home Aug. 12 after a three-day visit to Pyongyang.

"Hyundai has told us that (its chairwoman) Hyun Jung-eun has extended her visit
(to Pyongyang) one more day," Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung
said Aug. 13.
Hyun's trip is reminiscent of former U.S. President Bill Clinton's Pyongyang
visit last week that brought two detained American journalists home in a positive
signal for frayed North Korea-U.S. ties.
An employee of Hyundai Asan Corp., the group's North Korea business unit, has
been detained in the North since late March on accusations of criticizing the
North's political system and trying to persuade a local woman to defect. The
44-year-old man, identified only by his family name of Yu, was working at a joint
industrial park in the North's border town of Kaesong. The detained South Korean
man has been denied access to South Korean officials since his arrest on March
30.
The North's supervisory unit for the industrial enclave had described Yu as "a
man who entered (Kaesong) wearing a Hyundai Asan hat and was apprehended while
engaging in hostile activities against us." North Korea refused to reveal Yu's
whereabouts or the details of his condition to South Korean officials during
inter-Korean talks in Kaesong held in June and July.
The North Korean leader appeared to have been out of town, as the official Korean
Central News Agency reported on his inspection of a northern naval academy in an
early morning dispatch Aug. 12. Speculation ran high on whether Kim would meet
with Hyun later in the day and what the two would discuss.
Hyun's father-in-law and Hyundai's late founder, Chung Ju-yung, flew to an
eastern North Korean naval base to meet with Kim during a visit to Pyongyang in
2000. "The location makes no difference. It's only because of (the North Korean
leader's) schedule," said Kim Young-soo, a Hyundai Asan spokesman.
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 Aug. 10. Clinton stayed at the same guest house and
dined there with the North Korean leader.
Hyun previously stayed there during visits in 2005 and 2007, when she was granted
a meeting with the leader. In all those meetings, she was accompanied by her
daughter and heir-apparent, Chung Ji-yi, who is also in Pyongyang now.
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.
Hyundai is deeply entwined in inter-Korean relations, with several North Korea
ventures initiated by its late founder, Chung Ju-yung, who was 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 economic aid.
The South Korean government suspended Hyundai's major tourism program to North
Korea's Mt. Kumgang in July last year after a female tourist was shot dead there
by a North Korean solider. The North has never replied to the South's request for
a joint investigation regarding Park's death.
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.
Hyun took over as the group chief after her husband, Chung Mong-hun, took his own
life in 2003 amid mounting deficits from North Korean ventures and an
investigation into allegations of a secret payment to North Korea.
(END)