N.K. offers to lift border limits

North Korea yesterday offered to lift a nearly eight-month-long restriction on South Korean travel to the joint industrial park in Gaeseong, a Seoul official said.

The proposal came during inter-Korean talks on the fate of the embattled complex.

The two sides failed to narrow differences on key issues including the North`s demands for higher wages and rent and Seoul`s call for the release of a detained South Korean worker. They agreed to meet again on July 2.

"The North said it could lift the restrictions it placed on Dec. 1 on South Koreans` overland passage and length of stays in Gaeseong," Kim Young-tak, who led the South Korean delegation to yesterday`s inter-Korean talks in Gaeseong, said in a press briefing.

"There were no strings attached. The North said it intends to do so to help make business easier for the (South Korean) companies."



North Korea significantly reduced the number of people and vehicles allowed to cross the inter-Korean border on Dec. 1 last year in protest of what it called Seoul`s "confrontational" policy.

It also capped the number of South Koreans allowed to stay within the industrial enclave to 880.

Seoul proposed yesterday the two Koreas hold joint surveys of industrial zones abroad to "share a vision to enhance the international competitiveness of the inter-Korean industrial park in Gaeseong."

The South suggested the two sides begin an inspection of industrial zones in Asia next month, starting with China and Vietnam, and later in Central Asia and then in the United States and South America.

"The proposal (for joint surveys) was made to seek a reasonable solution for problems raised by both sides regarding the Gaeseong complex and to make the industrial park internationally competitive," Kim said.

"(We) urged the North to promptly withdraw restrictions on South Koreans` stay (in Gaeseong), guarantee free border transit, telecommunication and customs clearance, and to organize and run a joint committee on immigration."

The South Korean delegation also made it clear that the North`s demands for renegotiation on land lease hike was unacceptable, Kim said.

"But we explained that building nurseries (for the children of North Korean workers who are mostly young women) was negotiable along with the transit restriction," he said.

"The North repeated its demands (for a four-fold monthly wage hike to $300 per worker and a 31-fold hike in rent to $500 million) and repeatedly proposed that the two sides start with discussing the land lease hike."

In a 40-minute speech, the South Korean delegation presented three main principles for the development of the industrial complex, Kim said.

"The first is that the two Koreas strictly abide to inter-Korean agreements, contracts and rules, and the second is that the development of the complex should be based on economic fundamentals, and is unaffected by political or military situations," Kim said.

"The third is that the two sides maintain a future-oriented vision and will develop (it) into an internationally competitive industrial complex."

Despite having failed to close the gap on major issues such as the release of a South Korean detainee Yoo Sung-jin, the two sides showed their willingness at the three-hour long talks yesterday to keep the enclave alive.

"While refusing to accept the letter written by Yoo`s family, the North Koreans asked us to let his family know that he is fine," Kim said.

North Korea, however, reportedly criticized the recent South Korea-U.S. pledge of strengthened solidarity to press the North for denuclearization and the stipulation of inter-Korean unification under free democracy and a market economy.

President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. president Barack Obama agreed at the summit meeting in Washington earlier this week to bolster and develop the alliance into a strategic partnership and vowed strict sanctions against the North for its provocative behavior.

(sophie@heraldm.com)



By Kim So-hyun