South Korea to take US envoy, diplomats to North

Seoul, June 11: South Korea's Foreign Ministry will tomorrow take the US ambassador and dozens of other diplomats on an unprecedented trip to an industrial complex in North Korea that is at the centre of war of words between Seoul and Washington.

South Korea said the trip is designed to give US Ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, and other diplomats a first-hand view of the industrial complex that Seoul sees as a model of economic integration between the two Koreas.

The top US official for human rights in North Korea has said the park, where South Korean companies take advantage of cheap North Korean labour and land, may be counterproductive and end up providing funds that prop up Pyongyang's leaders.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will join the group and he has not been to North Korea since taking office. Neither has Vershbow since becoming the US envoy to the country.

About 80 diplomats will visit the Kaesong Industrial Park, including the Russian and Chinese ambassadors, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said.

''We hope this trip will contribute to enhancing and expanding international society's understanding of the Kaesong Industrial Park,'' South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The park is located just a few hundred metres (yards) north of the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula.

There are currently 15 South Korean companies at the park, turning out goods such as shoes, clothes and cosmetic cases.

South Korea envisions a day when about half a million North Koreans will work at the park, turning out billions of dollars worth of goods.

South Korean factories at Kaesong have paid a minimum monthly wage of 50 dollars for workers along with a 7.50 dollars fee for social insurance. The money is not paid directly to the workers, but instead goes to North Korea, which then dispenses the wages.

''The world knows little about what actually goes on at Kaesong, and given North Korea's track record, there is ample cause for concern about worker exploitation,'' Jay Lefkowitz, the Bush administration's point man for human rights in the communist state, wrote about two months ago in a Wall Street Journal story.

South Korea, a close ally of the United States, shot back with unusually blunt criticism, accusing Lefkowitz and being biased and ill-informed about how Seoul dispenses humanitarian aid in North Korea.

The visit of the diplomats to Kaesong comes after North Korea invited the chief US negotiator to stalled six-country talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programmes to visit the country for discussions.

Generally warming ties between Seoul and Pyongyang have recently been strained by North Korea's abrupt decision last month to cancel a highly symbolic test run of trains across their heavily fortified border.

Reuters