S. Korea says Hyundai-N.K. agreement 'positive,' calls for dialogue

(ATT: MODIFIES headline, lead, UPDATES with Hyundai chief quote on N.K. leader
remarks, civic group's reaction)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Monday called Hyundai Group's accords
with the North to resume joint ventures "positive" but said they can be
implemented only after the two governments officially endorse them.
Seoul cautiously welcomed the agreements Hyundai chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun
reached with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il a day earlier to resuscitate stalled
tourism projects and reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
"The government views Hyundai Group's joint statement with North Korea in a
positive way, but it is at the non-governmental level," Unification Ministry
spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
"For this agreement to be realized, the governments of South and North Korea need
to reach a concrete agreement through dialogue," he said.
South Korea's top priority is resuming the family reunions, and it will try to
set up inter-Korean Red Cross talks, the spokesman said. But he stopped short of
actually proposing dialogue, while North Korea suggested restarting the reunions
before Korea's thanksgiving holiday of Chuseok on Oct. 3.
"Whether we are going to propose dialogue in advance, it would be inappropriate
to discuss that until after a review is done" about Hyun's North Korea trip, Chun
said.
North Korea suspended family reunions in protest at Seoul's hard-line policy
after the conservative Lee Myung-bak government came to power in Seoul in early
2008. The reunion was a major outcome of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.
South Korea suspended Hyundai's tour business to North Korea's Mount Kumgang in
July last year after a North Korean soldier shot dead a female South Korean
visitor who strayed into an off-limits military zone.
North Korea promptly expressed "regret" but rejected South Korea's demand to
investigate the site of the incident.
Returning from an eight-day trip to the North, the Hyundai chairwoman brought a
more concrete message.
"Chairman Kim promised that there won't be a similar incident in the future,"
Hyun said in a press conference, recalling her four-hour meeting with Kim at
Mount Mohyang, just north of Pyongyang.
Seoul still remained cautious. North Korea should come up with "preventive
measures" against the recurring of such incidents, Chun said.
North Korea's olive branch was unanimously welcomed in civic and business circles.
"This will push forward progress in inter-Korean relations," Kang Young-shik, an
aid worker with the Seoul-based Korean Sharing Movement, said. "I hope this can
also lead our government to normalize humanitarian assistance to the North."
Kim Hak-kwon, chief of the Kaesong Business Council that represents firms
operating at a joint park in the North, said the agreement "will reduce the pain
of the businesses."
The North Korean leader agreed to lift a traffic curfew on South Korean workers
and cargo trucks traveling to the joint park. The curfew, which came as a
retaliation against Seoul's hard-line policy in December, has constrained
business operations at the Hyundai-developed park that hosts more than 100 South
Korean firms with about 40,000 North Koreans.
Hyundai has invested US$1.2 billion in North Korea over the past decade. Its
joint ventures have been a rare source of cash for the impoverished North. At the
joint park, North Korea earned more than $26 million in wages alone last year.
Hyun traveled to Pyongyang last week for what was supposed to be a three-day
mission to bring a detained employee home. Yu Seong-jin, who was accused of
criticizing the North's political system, was freed and returned home, but Hyun
extended her stay five times for the meeting with Kim.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)