Koreas to launch joint factory tour in China, Vietnam

SEOUL, Dec. 10 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea will embark on a survey to
factory parks in China and Vietnam later this week in a rare bid to enhance the
operation of their joint industrial complex in the North, Seoul's Unification
Ministry said Thursday.
The ministry laid out the 11-day itinerary for the trip that was recently agreed
upon with North Korea. A team of 10 officials from each side will fly to Qingdao,
an industrial port town in southern China, on Saturday and then travel to Suzhou,
a hub for China's silk industry, Shenzhen, a southern financial center, and
finally Yenpong, a Vietnamese complex near Hanoi. The trip will end on Dec. 22,
it said.
"We hope with this trip that the South and the North will be able to look at the
Kaesong industrial park from an objective perspective and build a consensus for
its development," ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said.
The North's agreement last month to hold the survey was a major sign that it
wants to keep up the joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong. The park's
fate came into question earlier this year amid deteriorating inter-Korean
relations and North Korean demands to sharply raise wages and land fees paid by
South Korean firms.
The Kaesong venture opened in 2004 as a major result of the historic first
inter-Korean summit in 2000. Currently 116 South Korean firms operate there with
more than 40,800 North Korean workers, producing mostly labor-intensive goods
such as electronics, clothing and kitchenware.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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