(2nd LD) Hyundai chief extends N. Korea trip for third time

(ATTN: UPDATES lead, experts' view on Hyun's meeting with N.K. pointman on South,
prospects for meeting Kim)
By Kim Hyun

SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Yonhap) -- The chairwoman of South Korea's Hyundai Group extended
her North Korea trip for a third time Friday, apparently waiting for an
unscheduled meeting with the country's leader Kim Jong-il who granted freedom to
a detained Hyundai employee Thursday.
Hyun Jung-eun, who was due to return home in the afternoon, will stay in North
Korea for one more day, said Cho Kun-shik, chief of the group's North Korea
business unit, Hyundai Asan Corp., who received a phone call from her entourage
in Pyongyang.
Hyun traveled to Pyongyang on Monday at North Korea's invitation. Her key mission
to gain the release of detained Hyundai Asan worker Yu Seong-jin was realized on
Thursday, but whether she manages to meet with the reclusive leader is considered
another barometer of the efficacy of her trip.
Hyun "seems to have been granted no meeting yet with Chairman Kim Jong-il," Cho
said before departing for a joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong,
which was developed by Hyundai Asan. Cho is expected to receive the group
chairwoman there on her way home.
The Unification Ministry will again approve the extension, said spokesman Chun
Hae-sung.
In a rare fence-mending move on Thursday, North Korea freed the Hyundai worker
who was detained at the joint park in late March. No ransom was paid for the
boiler mechanic, 44, who had been accused of criticizing the North's political
system and trying to persuade a local woman to defect to South Korea, Seoul
officials said. Yu's release removed a major roadblock to repairing frayed
inter-Korean relations.
But Hyun has other business issues to resolve with the North Korean leader.
Hyundai's US$1.2 billion worth joint industrial and tourism projects in North
Korea were suspended or scaled down last year as political relations unraveled,
causing massive deficits to the company.
Hyun is still in Pyongyang, the ministry spokesman said. Kim appeared to be on
provincial inspection tours that were reported by North Korean media as late as
Thursday. Her day-by-day extension of the trip raised speculation that Kim was
intentionally delaying seeing her.
In contrast, Kim granted a meeting with U.S. former President Bill Clinton hours
after he arrived in Pyongyang to bring two detained American journalists home
last week.
"I have no factual information to share, and it's inappropriate to speculate
about the possibility of the meeting," the ministry spokesman said.
Hyun has instead dined with a prominent Workers' Party department director, Kim
Yang-gon, who has spearheaded inter-Korean exchanges, the spokesman said. With
little information available about their discussion, the meeting spurred
conflicting reports in Seoul.
Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst with the non-governmental Sejong Institute, noted
Kim Yang-gon is North Korea's highest pointman on inter-Korean relations who
directly briefs Kim Jong-il. He secretly visited Seoul several times as the North
Korean leader's special envoy, and his latest such mission was in 2007 when he
met with then South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to arrange an inter-Korean
summit.
"They would negotiate first, to lessen the burden for General Secretary Kim
Jong-il to make decisions about when he meets her," Cheong said, referring to
leader Kim by his Workers' Party title. The aging leader, 67, reportedly suffered
a stroke last year.
But Yang Moo-jin, a professor with the University of North Korea Studies, said
North Korea was weighing the incentives Hyundai should give in return for meeting
with Kim.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)