North Korean Economy Watch

Yonhap:
10/11/2006

South Korean civic groups on Wednesday sent humanitarian aid shipments to North Korea despite the heightened tension over North Korea’s declared nuclear test, officials said.

A 2,864-ton ship plying the Incheon-Nampo route departed for a North Korean port with shipments of 14 containers for humanitarian aid and another 45 containers for construction and raw materials to be used at the Kaesong industrial complex just north of the inter-Korean border.

The aid shipments include 2,000 bicycles, two ambulances, blankets and boilers, they said.

Following North Korea’s announcement of its first-ever nuclear test on Monday, the South Korean government suspended a shipment of 7,500 tons of cement to the communist country.

“We hope that the provision of bicycles on humanitarian grounds will contribute to maintaining civilian inter-Korean exchanges and offering a clue to the resolution of the stained inter-Korean relationship,” a local YMCA official said. 

LA Times:
Helen Sung
10/8/2006

“WHEN I was in North Korea last year …,” I began, over dim sum one recent Sunday afternoon with a professor friend, a sophisticated Manhattanite.

“You’ve been to North Korea?” he interrupted. “Anyone can go,” I told him. “It’s a tour.”

While living in Seoul last year, I learned that a division of the South Korean mega-conglomerate Hyundai has been operating tours to Mt. Kumgang from South Korea since 1998. Considered the most beautiful mountain range on the Korean peninsula, Mt. Kumgang has been immortalized for centuries in poetry, art and song.

Before the Mt. Kumgang tour, South Koreans had been unable to travel north of the demilitarized zone — at least it was legally barred. The DMZ, established in 1953 at the end of the Korean War, sliced Korea in two, leading to the Republic of Korea in the south and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, in the north. The 2 1/2 -mile-wide DMZ sealed off the border between the two Koreas. To this day, tensions remain. Just last week, North Korea vowed to go ahead with a nuclear test, to the increasing dismay of world leaders.

But for Americans, to whom North Korea rarely, if ever, grants tourist visas (though it does to other foreigners), the tour offers one way to get inside the Communist country.

“Let’s go!” I said to a South Korean photographer friend and colleague after I learned of the tours.

“No way. It’s just a tourist trap,” he scoffed. “I heard they monitor everything, and you can’t go anywhere on your own. It’s not like you see the real North Korea or meet any regular North Koreans.”

“That’s all part of the charm of going to a totalitarian country,” I said, trying to persuade him. “Don’t you want to see what it’s all about?”

In the end, he did. Who wouldn’t want to peek inside one of the most politically isolated countries in the world?

*

Papers in order

TO go on the trip, we filled out simple registration forms and submitted copies of our passports and photographs to the tour agency. A couple of days later, our reservations were confirmed, and we submitted payment in South Korean won, equivalent to about $350 per person for the two-night, three-day trip. (For visa information, contact North Korea’s United Nations office, [212] 972-3105.)

On a wintry February morning, we assembled at a meeting point 100 miles northeast of Seoul and received identification cards that we were to wear at all times.

Mobile phones, high-powered camera lenses and South Korean magazines were among the items not allowed into North Korea. The tour included journalists (two Germans and a South Korean), the photographer I was traveling with and about 100 South Korean tourists.

Some of the tourists came to sightsee, but I suspect more came for the opportunity to set foot on northern soil.

We drove through the DMZ — the idea of it turned out to be more thrilling than the actual act — escorted by South Korean military. We passed vast dirt fields marked by occasional shrubs, trees and tunnels. Our tour guide warned us not to take any pictures.

At the military demarcation line our tour bus stopped. Two North Korean soldiers boarded. As one soldier stood guard at the front of the bus, the other strolled down the aisle, counting heads as he went. Once the soldiers left the bus, we were allowed to continue.

Whereas the south was highly industrialized and modern, the north looked like the land that time forgot. Civilians were walking, riding bicycles and pushing wheelbarrows. Other than the occasional military truck, there were no vehicles. Tattered pieces of cloth covered cracked and broken windows in abandoned-looking houses with worn roofs and crumbling tiles.

I saw the first of many carvings that marred the smooth surfaces of towering mountains in and around Mt. Kumgang. Etched in large Korean and Chinese characters, the signs touted the leadership of former Chairman Kim Il-Sung and current leader Kim Jong II.

Once at the mountain resort, we lined up to clear immigration. The North Korean official gave my American passport and Korean face a quizzical look. Maybe he had never met a Korean American.

“How safe is the tour?” I asked Young Sil Jung, a Hyundai Asan tour guide.

“It’s very safe,” she said. “It’s like South Korea.”

Indeed. It felt more like I was at a South Korean resort — maybe because I essentially was.

Hyundai Asan had developed a resort consisting of a hotel (a second has since opened), cozy wooden cabins, a hot springs spa and a rest area where frenetic South Korean pop music blared from loudspeakers in the parking lot.

There was a Family Mart (a South Korean chain of convenience stores akin to 7-Eleven). A sprawling shop sold North Korean souvenirs, the most popular being whiskey (purportedly made from snakes) and cigarettes “made in D.P.R.K.”

There was even a Hyundai duty-free shop selling Ferragamo, Chanel and Prada, among other luxury brands. At the restaurant, an all-you-can-eat buffet featured warming pans piled high with seasoned beef, shrimp, sautéed vegetables and tofu, noodles and steamed rice.

There was no hint that we were in one of the poorest, most oppressed countries in the world, and the scene in the hotel lobby, where a Filipino band sang American pop songs, bumped us into the realm of the surreal.

*

Trail ‘guides’

AS we headed out the next morning for our first day of hiking, our tour guide warned us not to take unauthorized photos, especially of North Korean guides, who were more like minders who kept close watch over us. Male and female guides monitored the trails to ensure tourists did not litter or show disrespect to the many monuments to father and son.

As I walked along Guryongyeon trail, an easy hike over gently ascending terrain, the North Korean guides chatted amiably with the South Koreans. I met a 68-year-old South Korean man, just a boy when Korea was divided, who had wanted his whole life to see the beauty of Mt. Kumgang. When I asked him how he felt, he replied, “There are no words.”

I could see what he meant. Mt. Kumgang was impressive with its great, hulking mountains and tall, craggy peaks. At Bibong Falls, South Korean ice climbers looked like ants scaling a towering waterfall that had been transformed into a wall of sheer ice.

At the bottom of the mountain, North Koreans sold roasted potatoes and fermented rice wine to the tourists for $1 each, accepting only American dollars. “They know the smell of money now,” said Ha Jung Byun, a senior manager with Hyundai Asan.

North Koreans were selling more local products at nearby Samilpo Lake. In a large, windowed room overlooking the frozen lake, women sold steamed mussels and potato pancakes, as well as North Korean calendars and cigarettes.

The next day, we hiked Manmulsang trail, known for its thousands of interesting rock formations. It’s a rigorous hike but worth it. The scope of the surrounding rugged peaks and the steep gorges and valleys were magnificent.

At the base of the trail, I met a director of the North Korean guides. He peppered me with questions about American politics and criticized the United States, saying that the “imperialist country” needed to stay out of North-South Korea relations.

I was curious how he felt about American tourists. He replied that he welcomed Americans and all foreigners to come view the beauty of Mt. Kumgang and meet North Koreans. On the way back, the Hyundai Asan guide pointed out dirt fields where the company planned to build a beach resort and golf course. Why anyone would want to go on the tour to North Korea to lie on a man-made beach or play golf was beyond me. The real merit of this tour was the sliver of Communist life I had seen on the way to the mountain resort and meeting some real North Koreans.

GETTING THERE:

From LAX, Korean Airways and Asiana offer nonstop service to Seoul. All Nippon Airways, Northwest, JAL and United offer connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $939.

The meeting point for the tour is at a hotel called Kumgangsan Condo, about 100 miles northeast of Seoul. Round-trip charter bus service from Seoul is available to the meeting spot for $30. The bus trip takes about four hours.

TELEPHONES:

To call the South Korean numbers listed below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code) and 82 (country code for South Korea), followed by the number.

WHERE TO STAY:

JW Marriott Hotel Seoul, 19-3, Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul; (888) 236-2427, http://www.marriott.com . An upscale, luxury hotel in central Seoul near shopping and business districts. Doubles begin at about $225.

Ibis Seoul, 893-1, Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul; 2-3011-8888; http://www.ambatel.com . A new hotel offering simple yet good-quality accommodations for the budget-conscious traveler. Doubles begin at $90.

BEFORE YOU GO:

To go on the Mt. Kumgang tour, visitors must register with a travel agency and provide the requisite documentation at least 10 days before the desired departure date. In Los Angeles, Smile Tour, (213) 365-2100, provides booking and other tour information. Hyundai Asan also provides information in English; call 2-3669-3691.

TOUR PRICES:

Hyundai Asan offers two-night, three-day packages starting at $290 (all prices are per person based on double occupancy), depending on the season and level of accommodations. The price includes lodging, breakfast, entrance and departure immigration fees, and hiking-related fees. Shorter trips are also available.

TO LEARN MORE:

Korea National Tourism Organization, (800) 868-7567 or (323) 634-0280, http://www.tour2korea.com .

From Reuters:
North Korea: Labor Rights at Risk in Joint Industrial Complex
10/2/2006

The North Korean law governing the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), a new industrial joint venture between North Korea and South Korean companies, should be amended to ensure adequate protections of basic workers’ rights, Human Rights Watch said in a new briefing paper released today. Although labor conditions for North Korean workers at the KIC likely represent an important step forward compared with the rest of North Korea, the law governing the complex and some practices by South Korean firms operating there still fall far short of international labor protection standards. The North Korean government wrote this law after consulting with the Hyundai Asan Corporation, the unit of the South Korean conglomerate Hyundai Group that is in charge of developing the complex.

“Given the dire circumstances in North Korea, the opportunity for people to work at facilities like Kaesong represents a small step forward,” said Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But unless workers’ rights are codified into legal protections, those rights could be violated with impunity at Kaesong.”

The 19-page briefing paper, “North Korea: Workers’ Rights at Kaesong Industrial Complex,” (or here in pdf) provides an overview of labor conditions at the KIC, an industrial complex located in North Korea. It documents the KIC Labor Law’s shortcomings in the areas of the freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, the prohibitions on sex discrimination and harassment and harmful child labor, among others.

The KIC opened in June 2004 under a contract between North Korea and South Korea’s Hyundai Asan Corporation and South Korea’s state-owned Korea Land Corporation. The complex is located between the North Korean city of Kaesong and the western border between the two Koreas. The workers produce goods mostly for the South Korean market, including watches, shoes, clothes, kitchenware, plastic containers, electrical cords and car parts, among other items. As of August, more than 8,000 North Korean workers were employed by 13 South Korean companies.

Human Rights Watch also found that South Korean companies are violating the existing KIC Labor Law, which stipulates that employers should pay workers directly in cash. An employers’ representative told Human Rights Watch that the South Korean companies have been asked instead to pay workers’ wages in U.S. dollars directly to the North Korean government, which in turn pays the workers in North Korean won after deducting a mandatory 30 percent contribution to a social welfare fund.

“The fact that North Korea has already managed to get South Korean companies to violate worker’s rights on wage payments is not only an embarrassment, but also raises concerns about other violations at Kaesong,” said Richardson.

North Korea is a party to four main international human rights treaties: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. All provide important workers’ rights protections, including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and ban sex discrimination and harmful labor for children. As a party to these international human rights treaties, North Korea has a legal obligation to protect these rights.

Human Rights Watch has not yet been given access to interview North Korean workers at the KIC. The briefing paper is based on information obtained from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, a representative of the South Korean companies operating at the KIC, and other sources, including an analysis of KIC’s labor laws.

North Korea should allow South Korean companies to pay the workers directly in cash, as stipulated in the KIC Labor Law, and it should amend the Labor Law to meet international labor standards and ensure the law is effectively enforced. Human Rights Watch called on North Korea to join the International Labor Organization (ILO), sign its core treaties, and invite ILO officials to discuss the protection and promotion of workers’ rights.

South Korea should ensure that South Korean companies are respecting workers’ rights in the Kaesong Industrial Complex. As a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), South Korea should also promote the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which asks state members to encourage enterprises to respect basic labor rights guaranteed in core ILO treaties.

“For Kaesong to represent genuine progress for human rights in North Korea, Seoul and Pyongyang alike must ensure basic rights and protections of the North Korean workers,” said Richardson.

From Yonhap:
Per capita production at N.K. industrial park passes $1,000 a month in August
10/1/2006

Per capita production at an industrial complex for South Korean companies in North Korea passed US$1,000 a month in August, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Sunday.

South Korea began financing and building the complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong in June 2003 as part of its policy of engaging the impoverished communist neighbor.

In August, total production at the Kaesong industrial complex was estimated at $6.8 million, up more than 20 percent from $5.5 million in July, the ministry said.

The Kaesong complex’s per capita production has been on a steady rise. The production was at $937 in the first quarter of this year, up from $758 in the fourth quarter of last year, $444 in the third quarter and $319 in the second quarter, it said.

Fifteen South Korean companies are now operating at the complex, located just north of the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas, the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee said on its Web site, without saying how many North Koreans are working there.

However, the prospects for the Kaesong complex are considered to be grim as the United States is moving to impose additional financial sanctions on the North over its alleged counterfeiting of dollars and other financial irregularities, local newspapers say.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have heightened as North Korea tested seven ballistic missiles in July, defying stern warnings from the U.S. and Japan.

Korea Times:
9/26/2006 

An inter-Korean joint venture firm was launched for the first time in the North Korean border town of Kaesong yesterday, the South Korean investor in the project said.

The “Arirang-Taerim joint venture stone company” was established with half of the investment provided by South Korea’s granite processing firm Taerim industrial and the other half by the North’s Kaeson General Trading, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

A ceremony to mark the completion of the new company’s factory was held with some 300 government officials and businessmen from the two Koreas in attendance.

The factory is located outside of the Kaesong industrial complex where 13 South Korean manufacturers operate under the protection of a special law ensuring their investment.

Since it agreed on the joint venture with the North in April, Taerim has invested some $2.95 million for the construction project.

Taerim said the factory will process granite and marble stones collected from North Korean mountains using cheap labor.

With a floor space of 3,300 square meters, the factory will have the capacity to produce some 80,000 tons of stone products annually, it added.

Yonhap:
9/24/2006

South Korean companies at an inter-Korean joint industrial complex in North Korea have produced more than US$50 million worth of products and exported about one-fifth of them since they opened shop there in 2004, official data showed Sunday.

The complex in Kaesong, a few kilometers north of the inter-Korean border, currently houses 13 South Korean garment, kitchenware and other labor-intensive plants, hiring about 8,500 North Korean workers. The complex opened its first pilot zone in December, 2004.

As of the end of August, the cumulative production of the Southern firms there reached US$54.6 million and their total exports came to US$11.3 million, according to the Unification Ministry data.

Their monthly output reached its highest level in August with US$6.8 million, up 24 percent from the previous month and 6 times more than the amount in the same period last year, the figures showed.

Under an agreement with North Korea, all goods produced in Kaesong are brought to South Korea for domestic sales or exports.

Those figures indicated a brisk and continuing growth of production in the complex. The project’s first monthly production in January 2005 amounted to just US$201,000. The figures broke the one-million dollar mark in August that year and jumped to US$5 million in March this year.

Besides the 13 firms now in operation in Kaesong, 24 more are constructing their plants in another pilot zone that opened last year in the complex.

The Kaesong complex is a key byproduct of the 2000 summit between the leaders of the Koreas, which boosted reconciliation and cooperation between them.

Yonhap:
9/23/2006

Fees paid by South Koreans for a visit to a scenic North Korean mountain resort has risen sharply in the past two years, a government report showed Saturday.

The Unification Ministry report to the National Assembly revealed that the admission fees for Mount Geumgang have risen twice since mid-2005, with the fee for a one-day trip jumping around 200 percent.

In 2004, North Korea demanded different admission fees from South Korean tourists depending on the length of their stay in the resort, the report said. Pyongyang has since raised the fees once in May 2005 and again in July of this year, it said.

For example, a tourist taking a one-day tour now should pay US$30, three times more than in 2004, the report said. The revised fees range from US$48 for one night and two days to US$80 for two nights and three days, it said. 

The tour to the North Korean resort has been organized by South Korea’s Hyundai-Asan Corp. since 1998. More than 1 million South Koreans have so far visited the resort.

From the Joong Ang Daily:
Bankbooks at Kaesong: Furor starts to subside
9/22/2006

The “scandal” over Woori Bank accounts given to a North Korean entity seemed to lose considerable steam late Wednesday night and yesterday, when government documents and explanations by officials clarified, at least partly, the ownership of the accounts and their purpose.

In its late city edition yesterday morning, the JoongAng Ilbo reported that a letter in March from the Unification Ministry to Woori Bank, which allowed a North Korean agency to open an account at Woori’s Kaesong branch, was less incriminating than it appeared. The document was in response to a letter from the bank asking if Woori was within the law by having opened two bank accounts for the agency in late 2004.

The owner of the accounts was the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee; it is headed by a South Korean and has members from both countries. Two additional accounts were opened last year.

Oh Seung-wuk, Woori’s public relations manager, told the JoongAng Daily yesterday that the accounts were controlled by the South Korean members of the committee and were used to channel South Korean workers’ salaries and wages payable to North Korean workers at the industrial complex into their paychecks. He said that only South Korean committee members had access to the accounts.

He also said the bank had sought the ministry’s advice before authorizing the first two accounts, and sought a written confirmation last March. The ministry’s reply to that written request was the document produced by a Grand National Party lawmaker, Kwon Young-se, Wednesday.

But the ministry apparently did try to use its influence in a related but separate matter; other documents provided by Representative Kwon showed that it pressed the bank to allow the North Korean General Bureau of Special Zone Development, which oversees Pyongyang’s capitalist experiments in operating special economic zones, to open other accounts. Woori Bank, supported by the finance and foreign ministries and the National Intelligence Service, objected strongly and prevailed at a meeting in Seoul on March 7.

The issue of “unauthorized transfers” to North Korea flared up partly because of new sensitivity to bank accounts opened by the communist country in the wake of U.S. attempts to limit its ability to finance its weapons and illicit product trade. Earlier accusations said Woori Bank had been involved in $2.37 million in “unauthorized” transfers to Kaesong.

Technically at least, the Woori transfers were indeed “unauthorized” at the time; the Bank of Korea had not been informed of them. In July, the administration agreed to waive the reporting requirement for South Korean investors in the Kaesong project.

The Finance Ministry said the waiver was justified because the purpose of the transactions was clearly documented elsewhere and the transactions themselves were transparent.

A Unification Ministry official also defended the transfers yesterday, saying they were within the bounds of an approved inter-Korean cooperation project, the industrial complex operations.

As the controversy flared yesterday, the unification minister, Lee Jong-seok, said his office had acted properly. “The Kaesong Industrial District Development Committee is a North Korean entity by legal definition, but South Koreans manage it,” he told reporters. “It was formed for the convenience of our companies, so the government allowed the opening of bank accounts.”

He also said international sanctions on North Korea did not exist when the accounts were opened, adding, “It is inappropriate to raise issues against a matter of the past with the view of the present.”

He apologized, however, for the fact that transfers had been made for over a year in violation of the foreign remittance laws.

From Yonhap:
9/21/2006

No S. Korean bank accounts for N. Korea: Unification Minister

No South Korean bank has opened accounts for exclusive use by North Korea or its officials, South Korea’s point man on North Korean affairs said Thursday.

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said the claim was untrue.

The remarks came in reaction to a report by local daily JoongAng Ilbo that the government may have influenced the country’s Woori Bank to open up four accounts for a North Korean organization overseeing an inter-Korean project to build a joint industrial complex in the North’s border town of Kaesong.

The organization, the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee, is a North Korean entity by legal definition, according to the minister. But, he said, it is a South Korean body, established and managed “by our people and for our convenience.”
“Naturally, (the bank) opened accounts for the management committee, headed by (South Korean) Chairman Kim Dong-keun,” Lee said in a regular press briefing.

“It is a very fanciful story to say (the bank) opened the accounts for North Korea and that this may be linked to North Korea’s efforts to evade U.S. financial sanctions, but one that helps no one,” the minister said.

Washington imposed financial sanctions on North Korea late last year, accusing it of counterfeiting U.S. dollars and engaging in various other illegal activities, such as drug trafficking, money laundering and illegal weapons sales.

An group of 34 South Korean officials are working with five North Korean officials at the joint management committee, according to Goh Gyeong-bin, head of the Unification Ministry’s office for the Kaesong project.

But the organization is considered North Korean in a strict sense because it was established under a North Korean law governing the complex, although the law itself is a product of an agreement between the divided Koreas.

“All South Korean companies (operating at the Kaesong complex) are North Korean entities in that sense and pay taxes to the North, but we cannot prohibit (South Korean banks) from opening bank accounts for the South Korean companies there,” the unification minister said.

“That is the unique characteristic that a special economic zone (with the North) carries,” he added.

Thirteen South Korean companies were employing about 8,300 North Koreans at the industrial park as of the end of August, while 24 other businesses from here have begun building factories in the joint complex, or are soon expected to do so, according to Goh.

The government had earlier planned to allow an additional 250 South Korean businesses to move into the joint industrial complex this year, but the planned expansion is at a standstill following the North’s launching of seven ballistic missiles in early July.

“I do not think it would take too long (before the government executes the planned expansion), but it would not be appropriate for now to say when the right time would come,” Lee said.

A key symbol of reconciliation between the Koreas, the joint development project is one of the prominent results of the historic Pyongyang meeting between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.

Seoul hopes to have as many as 2,000 South Korean companies move into Kaesong before the end of 2012, when the joint industrial complex is expected to be in full swing, employing nearly half a million North Koreans.

The Koreas have been divided along a heavily fortified border since the end of Korean War more than five decades ago.

from the Donga:
North’s Account Requests Kept Quiet

It was revealed that North Korea had been insisting on opening an account at the Gaesong Industrial Complex branch of Woori Bank for six months since the first request it made to the South Korean administration committee of the Gaesong Industrial Complex through the General Bureau for the Guidance on the Development in the Central Special Zone (GB hereafter) which administers and oversees the Gaesong Complex on September 14 last year.

But the government did not disclose this fact for a year thinking that such a request by North Korea can be interpreted as an attempt to avoid the financial sanctions by the U.S. and can give bad influence on the South-North relationship.

Stubborn North Korea-

The first request by the North Korean GB to open an account was verbal, but the request was made again on paper in December last year.

While Woori Bank kept from giving a firm answer, North Korea asked the bank persistently to explain why the account installation was being delayed, and hearing the bank answer that opening an account would be difficult, even threatened the South Korean administration committee that it would close down the Gaesong branch of the bank. North Korea backed up a step when it saw the signs of this sensation spreading, saying, “We didn’t mean it (when we mentioned the close down).”

The government held several meetings until March this year attended by officials of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the National Intelligence Service regarding such request by the North. An official in the Ministry of Unification said, “We had discussions on the backgrounds of the request by the North to open a bank account and the influences it could give to the South-North relations.”

Silent Government-

“Woori Bank refused the account installation based on its policy that the banks only deals with the enterprises within the Gaesong complex and the South Korean resident workers, and this issue came to a pause when the North said in March it would not raise any more complaints,” the government explained on September 19.

The behind the curtain story of why the government kept quiet about the request by the North to open an account is another controversy.

Only two days after September 14 last year when the North made its first request, the U.S. took measures to freeze the North Korean account of the Banco Delta Asia Bank in Macao. This fact gives us a hint on what North Korea was after when it attempted to make a financial account in Gaesong Complex.

Some people point out that the government could have been taking into consideration the fact that North Korea could be the target of another series of criticisms in case the request by the North is revealed to the world.

Joong Ang Daily:
9/22/2006

South Korea has decided to postpone expansion of a joint industrial complex in Kaesong with North Korea amid heightened tension over the communist state’s nuclear ambitions, Unification Ministry officials said yesterday.

At the beginning of this month, Seoul indefinitely suspended its plans to begin receiving applications from South Korean companies that wished to move into the joint industrial complex in the North’s border town of Kaesong in June. The decision came amid concerns that North Korea was planning to test-fire another missile. Pyongyang test-fired seven ballistic missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, on July 5.

The South Korean government refused to halt or suspend the inter-Korean project despite the North’s actions, which prompted a UN Security Council resolution prohibiting any missile-related dealings with North Korea.

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, the country’s point man on North Korea, has also defended the joint business venture, claiming inter-Korean cooperation may one day provide the key to the reunification of the divided Koreas.

The ministry again sought to receive applications from South Korean businesses this month or early next month, according to the ministry official. But it decided to postpone the schedule again due to unfavorable conditions.

“Because the most important thing is market conditions, [the government] is saying we will do it when [the market conditions] are most appropriate, but I believe there has been no specific pressure or request from the North Korean side,” Mr. Lee said in a regular press briefing yesterday.

He said it would not take too long for the planned expansion to be realized, but “it would not be appropriate for now to say when the right time would come.”

Yonhap:
9/21/2006

The South Korean government decided to postpone expansion of a joint industrial complex with North Korea amid heightened tension over the communist state’s nuclear ambitions, Unification Ministry officials said Thursday.

The decision follows an earlier delay of the planned expansion as a result of North Korea’s launching of missiles in July.

Seoul was to begin receiving applications from South Korean companies that wished to move into the joint industrial complex in the North’s border town of Kaesong in June, but the plan was suspended indefinitely due to signs of North Korean missile tests since the beginning of the month. Pyongyang test-fired seven ballistic missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, on July 5.

A ministry official said the decision comes despite repeated requests from North Korea for an early expansion of the complex.

“North Korea has consistently asked the government, even after it launched the missiles, to move ahead with the scheduled expansion of the complex at the earliest date possible,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Yonhap News Agency.

The South Korean government had refused to halt or suspend the inter-Korean project despite the North’s provocation, although it prompted a U.N. Security Council resolution prohibiting any missile-related dealings with North Korea.

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, the country’s point man on North Korea, has also defended the joint business venture, claiming inter-Korean cooperation may one day provide the key to rapprochement or reunification of the divided Koreas.

The ministry again sought to receive applications from South Korean businesses this month or early next month, according to the ministry official. But it decided to postpone the schedule again due to unfavorable conditions.

The unification minister said North Korea has made no specific requests for an early expansion of the joint complex, but now was not the best time for the plan.

“Because the most important thing is the market condition, (the government) is saying we will do it when (the market condition) is most appropriate, but I believe there has been no specific pressure or request from the North Korean side,” Lee said in a regular press briefing.

He said it would not take too long for the planned expansion to be realized, but “it would not be appropriate for now to say when the right time would come.”
The second delay comes amid concerns, mainly from the United States, that an expansion of the inter-Korean industrial complex may help funnel funds to the North’s missile and weapons programs.

Washington denies asking Seoul to suspend the inter-Korean project, but a number of ranking U.S. officials, including special ambassador for North Korean human rights Jay Lefkowitz, have raised concerns that South Korean companies operating at the joint complex may be aiding the North’s missile and nuclear weapons program while exploiting the North’s cheap labor.

“The government decided to consider installing additional factories at a later time due to the unfavorable situation,” the ministry official said.

The official denied any direct links between the postponement and the apparent opposition from Washington, but said it was “one of the elements considered.”
An additional 250 South Korean companies were expected to move into the industrial complex, where 37 businesses are already operating or soon expected to do so, when the planned expansion was complete.

There were nearly 8,300 North Korean employees at the joint industrial park as of the end of August, according to Goh Gyeong-bin, the ministry official in charge of the inter-Korean development project.

But ministry officials say the amount of money paid to the North Koreans is still insignificant, even for the impoverished North.

From US$500,000 to $600,000 in wages is paid each month to the workers at the Kaesong complex, whose minimum monthly salary is set at $57, according to Goh.

From the Joong Ang Daily:
9/21/2006
Lee Young-jong

Contrary to its statement on Tuesday, the Unification Ministry pressured Woori Bank to consider allowing North Korea to open a bank account, government documents obtained by a Grand National Party lawmaker showed yesterday.

A Unification Ministry official who asked not to be named said it was just a discussion and not formal pressure against the bank. He said the bank made its own decision, without being pressured by the ministry.

Representative Kwon Young-se obtained a copy of correspondence that the Unification Ministry sent to Woori Bank on March 28, and provided it to the JoongAng Ilbo.

According to the letter, the ministry tried to stretch the laws governing inter-Korean projects to grant the North’s wish. The North, in September of last year, asked the bank, which operates a branch in Kaesong Industrial Complex, to open an account under the name of the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee, headed by a South Korean official. The bank informed the Unification Ministry and consulted with it.

“The committee is composed of South Korean members, thus opening the account under its name is within the scope of approved inter-Korean cooperation projects,” the ministry told the bank in the letter.

The committee, however, is a North Korean corporation established under North Korean laws. Contrary to the ministry’s claim, North Korean officials are also working there.

Minutes of a meeting on March 7, where government officials discussed the issue, were also provided to the JoongAng Ilbo, showing the Unification Ministry apparently pressured the bank despite objections from other ministries. “We urge the bank to make a wise decision,” the ministry said, according to the minutes.

The bank, however, was opposed to opening an account for North Korea, citing South Korea’s financial laws and the U.S. Treasury Department’s anti-terror law. The bank also cited expected opposition from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering in turning down the North’s request, the minutes said.
 

From Yonhap:
N. Korean request to open account with S. Korean bank in Kaesong rejected
Byun Duk-kun
9/19/2006

North Korea sought to open an account with a South Korean bank at an inter-Korean industrial complex in its border town of Kaesong last year, but the South Korean bank rejected the request, officials at the Unification Ministry said Tuesday.

The report comes amid U.S. financial sanctions against the communist state for its alleged involvement in illegal activities, including counterfeiting, laundering and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Ministry officials, however, dismissed suspicions that North Korea may have tried to use the South Korean bank to evade, or find a safehouse from, the U.S. financial sanctions.

“North Korea first filed its request to open an account with the Woori Bank on Sept. 14, 2005, one day before” Washington imposed sanctions on a Macau bank suspected of aiding the North launder counterfeit U.S. dollars, ministry spokesman Yang Chang-seok told reporters.

A spokesman for the South Korean bank said the bank first heard of the North’s request in December, but did not rule out the possibility that North Korea may have filed its initial request with the South Korean government as early as September.

Goh Gyeong-bin, the ministry official in charge of the inter-Korean project to develop an industrial complex in Kaesong, said an account with the South Korean bank, if one was opened, would not have provided a safe haven for the communist state.

“The North said it wished to open an account at the Woori Bank branch in Kaesong and collect the wages of its workers at the industrial complex through the account,” Goh said.

He said the South Korean bank remained reluctant to comply with the North’s request since the beginning and notified the North Korean side in March that it decided not to approve the request. Woori Bank officials confirmed Goh’s statement.

“The North said it understood the bank’s position and that’s when the situation was concluded,” Goh said.

Nearly 8,300 North Korean laborers are currently working for 13 South Korean firms operating in the joint industrial complex, producing some US$5 million worth of goods a month, according to Goh.

A number of U.S. officials, including Jay Lefkowitz, a special envoy for North Korean human rights, have expressed concerns over possible violations of the North Korean workers’ human rights there and the diversion of their wages to help the North’s weapons program.

Seoul dismisses the concerns, saying the amount of money paid in wages is insignificant even for the impoverished North.

About $600,000, in U.S. dollars, are paid each month to North Korean workers there, whose minimum monthly wage is set at $57, according to Goh.

The joint industrial complex is expected to house some 2,000 South Korean firms, employing as many as half a million North Koreans, when it is in full swing in 2012, according to the Unification Ministry.

From the Korea Herald
9/20/2006

A bank spokesman said Woori serves South Korean companies and their employees from the South producing goods there.

“We rejected the request because we are not regulated to handle transactions with North Korea,” said Cho Seong-kwon.

The request was made last December, Cho said. It came after the U.S. strengthened its crackdown on firms it suspected of aiding Pyongyang in illicit activities such as counterfeiting.

Washington imposed sanctions on a Macau bank in September, accusing it of helping North Korea launder counterfeit U.S. dollars.

A month later, the United States also froze U.S.-based assets of eight North Korean firms on suspicions of illegal activities, including counterfeiting, laundering and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The Unification Ministry, however, said the North’s request had nothing to do with the U.S. sanctions, saying an account with Woori Bank, if one were opened, would not have been used for such illegal financial activities.

“The North said it wished to open an account at the Woori Bank branch in Gaeseong and collect the wages of its workers at the industrial complex through the account,” Goh Gyeong-bin, ministry official in charge of the joint industrial complex project, said.

Goh said the South Korean bank was reluctant to comply with the North’s request since the beginning and notified the North Korean side in March that it decided not to approve the request.

The complex is run by an affiliate of the South’s Hyundai Group. The South sees the park as a model of economic integration that can serve as an example of the path for future unification of the peninsula.

From the Joong Ang Daily:
Ministry says North sought bank account with Woori
Ser Myo-ja, Shin Eun-jin
9/20/2006

North Korea attempted last year to open an account with a South Korean commercial bank at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, but the request was rejected, the Ministry of Unification said yesterday.

In response to a report by the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper, the ministry said a North Korean agency made a verbal inquiry to the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee on Sept. 14, 2005 about opening an account with Woori Bank. In December, the agency submitted a written request.

Seoul held about four meetings to talk about the issue, the ministry said, but the matter was basically up to Woori Bank.

The North Koreans were quoted by the ministry as saying they wanted to collect income taxes from South Korean workers at the inter-Korean industrial complex.

The North also said it wanted the convenience of collecting salary payments for North Korean workers from their South Korean employers.

North Korean officials must visit the office of each South Korean factory in Kaesong every month for all financial transactions.

Woori Bank has continued to reject the North’s requests. Under Korean law, the bank said, the scope of its operations was limited to South Korean companies that operate factories in Kaesong and their South Korean employees.

The bank has not sought permission from the South Korean government to extend operations to North Koreans in order to meet Pyongyang’s request, the Unification Ministry said.

North Korea threatened Woori Bank that it would shut down the branch, but gave up in March, the ministry said.