A ranking North Korean official on Friday called for continued economic cooperation between the divided Koreas despite escalating tension over his country's launch of a long-range missile earlier in the month, the Unification Ministry told reporters.
The North Korean official's remarks were the first official request by the communist North for the Seoul government to maintain its economic cooperation projects, such as the development of a joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong, since the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution, prohibiting missile-related dealings with the North.
"(The countries) must continue to move forward the Kaesong industrial complex regardless of international conditions" surrounding the Korean Peninsula, Ju Dong-chan, Pyongyang's chief delegate to inter-Korean economic talks, was quoted as telling South Korean officials.
The remarks came in a regular meeting of the Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Promotion Committee in the North Korean border town, according to the Unification Ministry.
South Korean delegates, in return, called for easier access for South Korean officials and business visitors to the joint industrial complex, while also calling on the North Korean government to allow their business firms operating at the industrial town to directly pay wages to their North Korean employees there, the ministry said.
The Seoul government has refused to suspend the inter-Korean economic project, as well as a tourism program to the North's Mount Geumgang, claiming the U.N. resolution prohibits it and other nations from engaging with North Korea in businesses only and "strictly" related to missile technology and weapons of mass destruction programs.
Nevertheless, the joint industrial complex has been a burden for the South Korean government as there are concerns that a portion of the wages paid to North Korean workers there could be used to develop missiles.
Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, Seoul's highest official on North Korean affairs, said on Monday that "there was no way of knowing where the money that goes into North Korea (through inter-Korean economic projects) is used."
But he said the government had no plans to suspend the economic projects, saying it was unable to interfere with private business ventures at least for now.
Seoul suspended shipments of its humanitarian aid, which include rice and fertilizer, to the impoverished North shortly after the communist state launched seven ballistic missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on July 5.
The Koreas remain divided along a heavily-armed border in place since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Seoul, July 28 (Yonhap News)
N. Korea says Kaesong project must not be affected by missile crisis |
