N. Korea drops wage hike demand for joint park

(ATTN: COMBINES previous stories slugged "NK dam discharge-law violation" and
"NK-joint park"; UPDATES with details)
By Lee Chi-dong and Kim Hyun

SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has withdrawn demands for a hefty wage
increase at a South Korean-run industrial park, officials here said Friday, as
anger brewed in the South over a deadly flash flood unleashed when the North
opened a dam without warning.
After a brief thaw, a new chill hit inter-Korean relations this week with the
deaths of six South Koreans who were swept away by the floodwaters while they
were camping or fishing along the Imjin River early Sunday morning. Seoul has
concluded that the abrupt dam discharge was a violation of international law and
is considering legal action.
In a gesture apparently meant to assuage South Korean anger, Pyongyang took to
the long-stalled issue of raising wages for workers at the park, located in
Kaesong just north of the inter-Korean border. In a letter sent Thursday, the
North said it will accept a 5 percent raise -- per the original agreement -- and
drop its demand for a four-fold increase, said Lee Jong-joo, spokeswoman for
Seoul's Unification Ministry.
The North's management office at the park "presented to us its wage increase
proposal as above, saying it wants to seal an agreement as early as possible,"
Lee said in a press briefing. "Our management office, after consultations with
businesses operating there, is going to sign with the North soon."
North Korea earlier demanded wages be raised to about US$300 from $70-80, which
includes $55 minimum wage and benefits. Seoul rejected the hefty rate as
"unreasonable," and four rounds of negotiations yielded no progress.
"There was no mention about the $300 proposal" in Thursday's letter, Lee said.
The proposed 5 percent rate would add only a few more dollars to the current pay
rate, with the minimum wage raised to about $58.
More than 110 South Korean firms operate at the joint park, employing about
40,000 North Korean workers, producing clothing, electronic equipment,
kitchenware and other labor-intensive goods. The venture is a much-needed source
of dollar income for the North, which is currently under U.N. sanctions for its
May nuclear test that ban cash flows into the country's nuclear and missile
programs.
The North Korean compromise comes as inter-Korean relations again seem at risk
after briefly making progress. In August, North Korea released a detained South
Korean worker and lifted restrictions on joint tourism programs it imposed in
December to protest Seoul's hard-line policy on its nuclear program.
Later this month, the Koreas are set to hold reunions for families separated by
the 1950-53 Korean War, the first in nearly two years.
Earlier in the day, South Korea said the North's announced release of dam water
contravened a principle established by the international customary law stating
that a country's use of its own territory should not infringe on other countries'
rights and interests.
"North Korea's move this time can be viewed as having violated the international
customary law," said foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young.
The Unification Ministry, in direct charge of inter-Korean relations, was more
cautious. "In raising this issue internationally, I think there are many issues
to consider, such as feasibility," said Lee, the spokeswoman.
The Koreas have no agreement on disaster compensation, though South Korea has
compensated the North privately. After a 2005 traffic accident at the North's
Mount Kumgang resort, in which a South Korean worker killed one North Korean
soldier and injured two others, Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator of a tour
program there, reportedly paid $40,000 in compensation.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)