Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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June 5, 2009

North, South Korea to Discuss Troubled Joint Factory Project
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Kaesong complex is experiment in North-South cooperation which opened
for business in 2004 just inside North Korea's border with South 
North and South Korea have arranged a meeting next week to discuss
operations at a troubled joint industrial zone. South Korea is expected
to use the meeting to press for the release of a South Korean manager of
the zone who has been detained by the North since March. South Korean
Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung says North Korea is ready
to talk about the Kaesong Industrial Complex. He says North Korea
offered to hold working-level discussions next Thursday. That
appointment is in response to offers the South has made for talks since
last month. North Korean female workers toil at a South Korean-run plant
in the inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong (File)The Kaesong
complex is an experiment in North-South cooperation which opened for
business in 2004 just inside North Korea's border with the South. South
Korean businesses hire nearly 40,000 inexpensive North Korean workers to
manufacture simple items like clothing and cosmetics. However, the zone
has run into a series of serious complications amid worsening relations
between North and South. Since last year's inauguration of conservative
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak - who North Korea calls a "traitor"
- North Korea has restricted access to the zone, detained a South Korean
executive for more than two months without trial, and cancelled all of
the contracts governing rent and wages. The detained executive, known by
his surname Yu, is believed to have made inflammatory comments about
North Korea's political leaders. He may also have encouraged a North
Korean female worker to defect to the South. For South Korean officials,
his detention without visiting rights or legal counsel is a key concern,
because it reflects upon the overall safety of several hundred corporate
managers in the zone. Unification Ministry deputy spokeswoman Lee
Jong-joo says North Korea has not yet insisted that Yu will be treated
according to North Korea's domestic laws. She says South Korea is
insisting his case be handled according to previous North-South agreemen
ts - not North Korean law Yu's case is drawing inevitable comparisons to
North Korea's detention of two American female journalists who were
captured in March. A trial was scheduled for the two women Thursday in
Pyongyang, but the North has kept completely silent so far about the
outcome.