Wage payment to N. Korean workers in Kaesong complex surges 48% since missile tests

Yonhap
2/25/2007

Wages paid for North Korean labor in an industrial complex in the North’s western border town of Kaesong surged nearly 50 percent in the second half of last year, despite the communist country’s missile and nuclear tests, government data showed Sunday.

According to a report submitted by the Unification Ministry to the National Assembly, North Korean employees’ wages in the Kaesong industrial complex amounted to US$4.23 million in the second half of last year, up 48 percent from the first half’s $2.87 million.

“Even after the North’s missile tests and nuclear test (in October), the hard currency, which the international community takes issue with, continues to end up in the hands of the communist regime while the payment for the Kaesong workers also is expanding,” said Chin Young, a lawmaker of the main opposition Grand National Party, who released the report.

The Kaesong industrial complex is one of two major cross-border projects along with a joint tourism project at the North’s scenic Mount Geumgang.

In the joint industrial complex, South Korean businesses use cheap North Korean labor to produce goods. More than 20 South Korean factories employ a total of 11,189 North Korean workers in Kaesong.

The North, meanwhile, conducted missile tests in July and its first nuclear test in October in defiance of opposition from the international community.

Those incidents prompted a setback in inter-Korean relations and raised concerns that the money paid to the North in the industrial park could be funneled to the communist regime, an allegation that Pyongyang denied.

The report showed wages paid to the North Korean workers have been on the increase in the past few years. In 2004, they stood at $390,000 but rose to $2.76 million in 2005 and $7.10 million in 2006.

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