MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) - Pyongyang and Seoul have agreed to meet at a joint industrial park located in North Korea to discuss the future for the complex along with a detained South Korean employee, Yonhap news agency said on Friday.
Among the military and political tensions between the North and South, the Kaesong Industrial Zone came under fire in mid-May, when the Communist state withdrew from an economic agreement on the park.
North Korea had demanded the talks focus on wages, land leasing and other contracts relating to the industrial park, but refused to discuss the release of a South Korean worker, known as Yu, who worked for Hyundai Asan Corp., detained March 30 and accused of criticizing the regime and inciting a North Korean worker to defect, Yonhap reported.
North Korea "sent a document today proposing working-level talks" on June 11 on the joint park, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said, adding that Seoul has accepted the proposal.
North Korea has not allowed South Korean officials access to Yu.
The industrial park is the last remaining inter-Korean economic project set up by the former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. More than 100 South Korean companies operate and 40,000 North Koreans are employed at the park, located about an hour's drive from Seoul.
Most of the companies manufacture clothing, household appliances and electronic equipment.
