N. Korean workers help Sungrim grab high quality rating

SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korean workers helped a South Korean company
operating at a joint factory park win a top product quality certificatate, a
business body here said Friday.
Sungrim Precision, established in 1993, set up a plant at the complex in the
North's border town of Kaesong in April last year to produce plastic caps for
food containers.
Currently, the company employs 88 North Korean workers at the plant, along with
three South Korean managers.
According to the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the ratio of defects
per million parts produced at Sungrim Precision's Kaesong plant was below 0.00001
over the last six months, a level considered virtually defect-free.
This is the first time a South Korean company operating in Kaesong has achieved
the top product quality level.
"It is meaningful that North Korean workers achieved such quality," said an
official at the chamber.
According to the chamber, 1,664 plants operating in South Korea have received
such product quality certificates.
"At first, there were many defects as there were virtually no skillful workers,"
said Sungrim Precision president Ok Joon-suk. "But product quality improved after
we offered more incentives and improved working conditions."
Currently, more than 100 South Korean firms operate with about 40,000 North
Korean workers in the Kaesong complex, an outcome of the first inter-Korean
summit between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il in 2000.
sam@yna.co.kr
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