From the Joong Ang Daily:
Jay Lefkowitz, Washington’s special envoy on North Korean human rights, has continued to criticize the working conditions for North Korean laborers at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where South Korean companies have located plants.
On the surface, wages and working conditions are the main issue, but experts say there is a more fundamental difference between Seoul and Washington on economic support for the North and on human rights issues there.
In an essay in the Wall Street Journal’s weekend edition, Mr. Lefkowitz said daily wages for North Koreans at the complex were less than $2. That appears to be correct; the monthly minimum wage at the complex is $57, including a 30 percent commission to the government. But because companies at the site pay those wages to a North Korean labor service provider, it is not known how much, if any, of the wages actually find their way into workers’ pockets.
There are currently, 6,850 North Korean workers at the complex; the number will go up by about a fifth this month.
The Unification Ministry here was outraged by Mr. Lefkowitz’s comments, especially by a reference to “slave labor.” The minister, Lee Jong-seok, said on Sunday that he wasn’t sure whether Mr. Lefkowitz was trying to improve human rights in the North or hamper them.
Seoul has put human rights issues in North Korea on the back burner, angering many conservatives here, arguing that the best way to improve rights was by economic development of the North, assisted by massive amounts of economic assistance from South Korea.
