US lawmakers on first visit to N.Korea factory park

SEOUL, Dec 1 (Reuters) Four US lawmakers crossed into North Korea today in the first visit by members of Congress to an industrial park touted by Seoul as a model of how to modernise its communist neighbour's impoverished economy.

The Bush administration has had reservations about the Kaesong Industrial Park, located a few hundred metres (yards) north of the Demilitarised Zone buffer, saying workers at the plant may be exploited by the North's leaders.

The four lawmakers, all Democrats, are Eddie Johnson of Texas, Michael Honda of California, Jim McDermott of Washington and Eni Faleomavaega of American Samoa, South Korean officials said.

They have been in South Korea as part of a meeting of lawmakers from the South and Japan.

More than 10,000 North Koreans, making goods such as shoes and cosmetics cases, are employed in the park at more than 20 South Korean factories.

Seoul hopes more than half a million North Koreans will eventually work at the industrial park where South Korean industries take advantage of cheap North Korean labour and land to manufacture goods.

Wages at Kaesong, which start at 50 dollar per month, are paid to the North Korean government, not directly to workers. The US point man for human rights in North Korea, Jay Lefkowitz, has said some of those wages could end up in the pockets of Pyongyang's leaders.

Other US officials have visited the factory park in Kaesong in the past, including the US ambassador to South Korea.

REUTERS SY PM0842