North, South Korea end wage row at joint industrial zone: Seoul
North and South Korea have agreed to a pay rise for workers at the jointly-operated Kaesong border industrial zone, putting an end to months of disputes over the issue, Seoul says.
A source at the South’s Ministry of Unification said Tuesday that Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to a five-percent hike in the wages of mainly North Korean employees in Kaesong, up from USD 70 a month to USD 73.87.
Earlier this year, North Korea had unilaterally announced that a 5.18-percent would be implemented, an amount that exceeded a previously agreed five-percent annual wage rise cap.
However, the South maintained that any such change must be agreed on by both neighboring countries.
The Kaesong estate is located just 10 kilometers (six miles) north of the South Korean border inside North Korea. The zone is a joint enterprise between Pyongyang and Seoul, hosting around 120 South Korean firms that employ some 53,000 North Korean workers.
The complex was set up following a 2000 summit that was held between South Korea’s then President Kim Dae-jung and late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Kaesong was launched in 2003 in an effort to improve the ties between the two neighbors, which have been locked in a cycle of military rhetoric since the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953 and ended in an armistice. No peace deal has been signed since then, meaning that Pyongyang and Seoul remain technically at war.
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