North Korea approves US envoy's visit to factory park

SEOUL, June 27 (Reuters) North Korea has approved a visit by the US envoy for human rights in the communist state to an investment park that has sparked tensions between Seoul and Washington, a South Korean official said today.

The envoy, Jay Lefkowitz, could visit the Kaesong Industrial Park as early as next month.

Run by an affiliate of the South Korea's Hyundai group, the park is located a few hundred metres north of the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula and is populated by South Korean companies looking to use the North's cheap labour.

Lefkowitz has said there could be worker exploitation at the park, but South Korea has criticised him as being ''biased and ill-informed'', and suggested he visits.

North Korea has sent a message to the South Korean government accepting the Lefkowitz visit, the South Korean official said.

A date for the trip has not been decided but US officials indicated it could take place next month.

Seoul sees the project as a model for the capitalist and communist economies when the two Koreas unite.

US Ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said today the South Korean firms at the park should pay their North Korean workers directly instead of paying their wages to North Korean officials, who then are charged with dispensing the money.

This would give the workers a lesson in market economics, Vershbow said in an Internet discussion with South Koreans.

REUTERS SHB KP1602