Number of N. Korean Workers at Kaesong Complex Tops 8,000
The number of North Koreans working at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea has surpassed 8,000, government officials said Saturday.
The officials expected the figure to break the 10,000 mark this year.
A total of 8,266 North Korean workers are now employed by South Korean private and public firms operating at the Kaesong complex, the officials said, quoting data from the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee, a North Korean corporation that oversees the complex.
Some 7,700 of them are employed by private firms, while the rest were hired by the two companies that support their operation _ the state-run Korea Land Corp. and Hyundai Asan, an affiliate of Hyundai Group in charge of North Korean business projects, according to the statistics.
Thirteen South Korean firms operate factories using cheap but skilled North Korean labor in the pilot zone of the Kaesong complex, which started up in June 2004.
Ten other firms are busy building factories in another pilot zone that opened last September.
