South Korea warned Wednesday against North Korea’s move to collect an arrears charge from South Korean firms at a joint industrial park in the North amid an ongoing row over wage hikes.
The two Koreas have been in dispute since the North unilaterally decided in February to raise the wage level by 5.18 percent to US$74 per month starting in March for about 53,000 North Korean workers hired by South Korean firms at the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North’s border city of the same name.
Seoul is seeking to hold talks with the North over the issue through a quasi-governmental committee as the payday for the March wages, which began Friday, will last for 10 days. None of the 124 South Korean firms have paid March wages to the North Korean workers.
In 2008, the North notified Seoul of its decision that Pyongyang is able to impose an arrears charge of 15 percent per month if South Korean companies do not pay wages at the proper time for North Korean workers at the industrial park.
Seoul’s unification ministry warned Wednesday that it cannot accept the North’s possible bid to impose an arrears charge on South Korean firms.
“Seoul does not think that Korean firms do not pay wages timely if they follow (the wage-setting) guidance for the industrial park,” unification ministry spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol said at a press briefing. “We will not accept the North’s possible move if it tries to collect the arrears charge.”
Seoul has not accepted the North’s unilateral move, saying that Pyongyang violated a 2004 agreement that calls for two quasi-government committees from each side to set the wages together. The wage cap has been set at 5 percent.
The talks have gained urgency as North Korea will take days off on Wednesday and Thursday to mark the April 15 birth anniversary of its late founder, Kim Il-sung.
The industrial complex opened in the early 2000s, the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. It has served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped communist country. (Yonhap)
