[USFK Forums] Seoul expresses strong regrets over U.S. envoy's concerns for Kaesong

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, April 1, 2006

Seoul expresses strong regrets over U.S. envoy's concerns for Kaesong

2006/03/31 17:21
By Byun Dyuk-kun

SEOUL, March 31 (Yonhap) -- [/color]The South Korean government on Friday dismissed as "inappropriate" and "misleading" concerns by a special U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights over working conditions of North Korean workers in an inter-Korean industrial complex in North Korea.

The Unification Ministry, the government's top office on North Korean affairs, said the concerns by Jay Lefkowitz were not only based on hearsay, but claimed the U.S. envoy distorted facts about working conditions at the joint industrial complex.

"An important figure of the U.S. government has made comments that can harm the image of our companies operating in the Kaesong complex without confirming, but rather distorting, the facts about North Korean workers' wages and working conditions there," Lee Gwan-se, head of Unification Ministry's public relations office, told reporters.

The reaction followed calls by the U.S. envoy in Washington that the international community should work to make sure that the North Korean employees of South Korean businesses in the joint industrial complex were being properly treated and paid.

"I would submit that at a minimum, North Korea should allow an independent party such as the International Labor Organization to inspect and assess Kaesong (complex) and report its findings to the United Nations," Lefkowitz said in a public lecture Thursday (Washington time).

A byproduct of the historic summit between former South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kim Dae-jung and reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000, the joint complex is at the core of Seoul's policy to engage the communist state.

Fifteen South Korean companies are already operating there, employing about 6,000 North Korean workers, according to ministry officials.

Nearly 300 South Korean companies are expected to move into the complex just north of the heavily armed inter-Korean border, while the North Korean town is expected to house up to 2,000 South Korean companies, employing as many 600,000 workers when the joint complex comes into full swing in 2012, the officials said.

"The average working hours of 48 hours a week and paid leaves for female employees and other labor standards all satisfy the standard working conditions set by the ILO," Lee said.

A North Korean worker at the Kaesong complex is paid a minimum US$57.50 a month, according to the ministry official.

This, however, is "far higher" than what an average North Korean worker elsewhere gets paid, and is not lower than the average monthly wage in other socialist countries, Lee claimed.

An average North Korean worker outside of the Kaesong complex is known to be paid less than $30 a month, according to ministry officials.

"The Kaesong complex is a very meaningful project that also reflects our nation's wish to turn the place of war into an area of peace and co-prosperity," Lee said.

"The government strongly regrets the U.S. envoy's remarks that can undermine such purposes of the project."
Appointed following a 2004 act on North Korea's human rights situation, the U.S. envoy is tasked with making and implementing an action plan for improving living conditions in the communist state, which is labeled by Washington as one of the most oppressive regimes in the world.

The United States has yet to accept any North Korean refugees, at least officially, despite the enactment of the special act early last year.

Lefkowtiz has visited the South since his appointment in August, but has yet to gain access to the reclusive North.

The Koreas have remained divided by a 250-kilometer-long border since the end of 1950-53 Korean War. The countries remain in a state of war since the war ended with an armistice treaty, or a cease-fire, and not a peace treaty.

bdk@yna.co.kr
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