S.Koreans go to rare talks in North at factory park
21 Apr 2009 00:49:02 GMT Source: Reuters
By Jon Herskovitz SEOUL, April 21 (Reuters) - A South Korean economic delegation left for North Korea on Tuesday for rare talks between the political rivals that come as regional powers are trying to prevent Pyongyang from restarting its nuclear arms plant. South Korean officials have released few details on the talks over a joint factory park just north of the border requested by North Korea but will almost certainly seek the release of a South Korean worker detained there for nearly a month for allegedly making derogatory comments about Pyongyang's leaders. Also at stake may be the future operations of the Kaesong Industrial Park, where South Korean firms use cheap North Korean labour and land to make goods, and the cash-strapped North receives a steady flow of foreign currency in return. (For a factbox on Kaesong, please click on [ID:SEO308698]) North Korea, angered by the decision of President Lee Myung-bak after he took office a year ago to cut a steady flow of aid to his impoverished neighbour, has disrupted work at the park to put pressure on Seoul's government to drop its hard line. North Korea has all but suspended dialogue with Lee's government and dubbed him a traitor to the nation for tying aid that helped prop up the North's wobbly economy to progress Pyongyang makes in giving up nuclear arms. But the North may be more dependent on the money generated by the Kaesong park due to an expected economic blow from a defiant rocket launch earlier this month widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test that violated U.N. resolutions. The U.N. Security Council chastised the secretive state for sending the rocket over Japan and called for tighter enforcement of existing sanctions. In response, Pyongyang has said it would boycott six-way nuclear disarmament talks, restart a plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium that was being dismantled under a deal reached at those discussions, and threatened war with the South if it joined a U.S. initiative to halt the proliferation of illicit weapons. U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday in Beijing more talk and deeper trust were needed to defuse the nuclear dispute with North Korea, and urged Washington to stick to dialogue. [ID:nPEK356272] ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he hoped North Korea, which expelled IAEA monitors last week and conducted a nuclear test in October 2006, would soon invite them back. The latest nuclear rumblings from the North have not upset financial players used to the North's threats but worries may increase if the North restarts its ageing Yongbyon nuclear plant and tries to produce more plutonium for bombs. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to visit Pyongyang this week to discuss the rocket launch and persuade the North back to the sputtering nuclear talks with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. (Additional reporting by Chris Buckely in Beijing; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner and Bill Tarrant)
Anti-North Korea protesters drag a defaced portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during a protest in front of foreign ministry office in Seoul April 20, 2009. Dozens of conservative protesters ...
