| Submit your comments on this article |
| China-Japan-Koreas |
| SKor advance team leaves for talks in North amid grim outlook |
| 2009-06-18 |
| SEOUL, June 17 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean advance team left for the North on Wednesday to prepare for upcoming inter-Korean talks over a joint industrial venture, but prospects for any meaningful settlement are low following a stern message from President Lee Myung-bak. The working-level officials will settle procedural matters, such as schedule and facilities, with their North Korean counterparts, said Lee Jong-joo, a ministry spokeswoman. Friday's talks are a follow-up to an earlier round last week, during which North Korea demanded a four-fold wage increase for its workers at the complex and a 31-fold raise in rent. The demand would lift the wages to US$300, from the current $70~80, and the rent to $500 million, from the $16 million South Korean developers paid when the park opened in 2004. It remains to be seen how North Korea will respond to Lee's flat rejection. "We urge North Korea not to make any unacceptable demands because we really do not know what will happen if they keep on this path," Lee said, with Obama at his side in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday (Washington time). |
| Posted by:Steve White |