The North Korean regime wants greater pay for workers in South Korean factories and an increase in taxes. But the income would go to financing the North’s nuclear program. Yesterday the United Nations’ Security Council reached an accord on the draft resolution to Pyongyang: the vote is due tomorrow.

Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – An increase in the wages of North Korean workers in the factories in the inter-Korean industrial complex of Kaesong, tripling the current pay to over 300 dollars a month.  That is Pyongyang’s demand to Seoul in the second round of government level negotiations between the neighbouring states since 2008.  Meanwhile yesterday, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council together with South Korea and Japan reached unanimous accord on a draft resolution to be put to Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile tests.  

Seoul’s Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said the two Koreas agreed to meet again on June 19 to follow up on the North's proposals, said. In today’s talks the Seoul “raised the case of the South Korean worker detained” by Pyongyang accused of “hostile acts” towards the communist regime; Chung however failed to clarify is the North provided an answer to the South’s demand.

North Korea demanded South Korean firms at the joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong agree to an annual wage increase rate of 10/12% from the current 5%. South Korean businesses operating in Kaesong currently pay 70-80 US dollars a month. Korean political experts’ note however, that wages and other fees paid by the South in hard cash go directly into the coffers of the North's communist’s leaders who exploit the Kaseong workers for its own benefit with funds generated there helping Pyongyang pay for its various weapons and nuclear programmes.

Regarding these ambitions, yesterday representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council together with Japan and South Korea, reached a unanimous agreement on the final draft of a resolution against North Korea over its nuclear test and the launching of long and short range missiles.  Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, described the draft as a "strong response" to North Korea's nuclear test.

The resolution, backed by the United States Japan and South Korea, initially met with resistance from Russia and China.  It sets out 34 points that include a complete ban on arms exports to the North.  Rice added that a total ban on North Korean arms exports would cut off a significant source of revenue for Pyongyang. The document demands that the North’s regime stops all nuclear tests and asks for the collaboration of member states in controlling suspicious merchant shipping from North Korea.

The draft will be discussed today in the Council: a vote is scheduled for tomorrow.

 

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