The minimum wage for North Korean workers being hired by South Korean companies operating at the inter-Korean industrial park in the North’s border town of Kaesong rose by 5 percent this year, the same annual rate of increase since 2007, the Unification Ministry said Monday.

Despite frequent cross-border tensions between the two Koreas, the joint industrial park in Kaesong has been in operation since 2004 without any major interruptions. More than 46,000 North Koreans currently work at about 120 small labor-intensive South Korean plants there.

The increase, agreed upon last week by the factory park’s management officials from the two sides, will bring the minimum wage for the North Korean workers to $63.814, a ministry official said.

Under the park’s labor regulations agreed in 2004, the monthly wage of the North Korean workers there is allowed to be raised up to five percent each year.

The latest increase, which follows a five percent wage hike last August, will be effective for one year starting on Aug. 1, according to the official. 

(Yonhap News)