Koreas End Talks Sans Agreement, to Meet Again Next Month

SEOUL, June 19 -- South and North Korea failed to reach an agreement at Friday's talks over Pyongyang's demands for wage and rent hikes at a joint industrial venture, but agreed to meet again next month, a Seoul official said.

The two sides will hold a follow-up meeting on July 2, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said in a briefing.

South Korea's delegation pressed for the release of a worker who has been detained since March for "slandering" the North's political system, while North Korea made demands for wage and rent hikes at the joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong.

A senior ministry official, requesting anonymity, said North Korea refused to give word about the Hyundai Asan Corp. employee. Seoul rejected Pyongyang's wage and rent demands as "unacceptable," he said.

The spokesman said the North offered to lift a traffic curfew it has imposed in protest of Seoul's conservative policy since December on South Korean businessmen traveling to the joint park.

South Korea proposed holding joint surveys in foreign industrial zones in the United States, China and Vietnam, Chun said.

North Korea wants South Korean firms to quadruple monthly wages for its workers to US$ 300 from the current US$ 70-80 and raise collective land rent to US$ 500 million, a 31-fold increase from the US$ 16 million paid when the park opened in 2004.

The talks follow a stern message from South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who called for a stronger alliance between Seoul and Washington and vowed strict sanctions against the North for its provocative behavior in a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this week. (PNA/Yonhap)