Koreas reach broad consensus on joint factory park

SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- The two Koreas reached consensus during a rare survey
in China and Vietnam that both sides want their joint factory park to become
internationally competitive, though a number of issues remain, Seoul's chief
delegate said Wednesday.

The fate of the inter-Korean park in the North's border town of Kaesong came into
question earlier this year amid deteriorating political relations and North
Korean demands to sharply raise wages and land fees paid by South Korean firms.
The Dec. 12-22 trip to Chinese and Vietnamese industrial complexes by
representatives from the two Koreas was a major sign of Pyongyang's shift towards
greater cooperation with Seoul.
"As the joint inspection team witnessed advanced factories in Chinese and
Vietnamese industrial parks as well as their competitive products, the North
Korean members expressed a wish to develop the Kaesong complex," Kim Young-tak, a
Unification Ministry official who led the South Korean team, said at a press
briefing.
A 10-member delegation from each side returned home Tuesday night after visiting
several emerging industrial parks in China and Vietnam in a bid to find benchmark
models for the Kaesong complex.
Their itinerary included visits to Chinese factories owned by such South Korean
giants as steelmaker POSCO Co. and office equipment maker Sindoh Co., and to a
Vietnamese handset plant operated by Samsung Electronics Co. Their factories are
located in Qingdao, an industrial port town in China's northeast, and in Suzhou,
a hub for China's silk industry, as well as in Yenpong, a Vietnamese complex near
Hanoi.
"The notable thing was that the North side was always cooperative and actively
participated," Kim said.
North Korean officials paid attention to wage and insurance systems, and
particularly to ways of preventing payment delays by investors, noting that wage
payments for North Korean workers in Kaesong are often deferred by South Korean
firms, Kim said.
The South side was more interested in infrastructure and safety issues, tax
benefits and customs systems, he said.
The joint survey, the third of its kind since the Kaesong park opened in late
2004, has yet to produce any agreement on adjusting wages or follow-up meetings,
Kim said.
The minimum monthly wage in surveyed factories in China and Vietnam was about
US$100, though these are not subject to comparison with the Kaesong complex
because of the difference in payment systems, the official added.
South Korean firms pay an average of $80 a month to North Korean workers in
Kaesong. The payments are made directly to the North Korean government.
The Kaesong venture was a major result of the historic first inter-Korean summit
in 2000. Currently 116 South Korean firms operate there with more than 42,000
North Korean workers, producing mostly labor-intensive goods such as electronics,
clothing and kitchenware.
The park's output in October reached $27 million, up 12 percent from $24 million
a month earlier, according to the latest ministry data.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)