Kim Na-rae, 23, prepares to join a caravan headed from South Korea to the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, where she is employed as a clothing embroidery designer.
Kim said she was initially nervous about working in North Korea, but eventually realized that the people there are a lot like South Koreans. She is one of the 1, or so South Koreans who routinely venture across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea to work at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, even though the two countries are technically at war and come close to resuming hostilities a couple of times each year.
However, long-term plans to expand the complex to more than 25 square miles, 2, companies and , workers are frequently stalled by continuing friction between the North and the South. The inspection intensified speculation the North might end or suspend its participation in the complex. In a dispute last week, the North confiscated five buildings owned by South Korea at Diamond Mountain β a jointly operated tourist resort in North Korea that, much like the industrial complex, was designed to benefit South Korean businesses and the North Korean economy.
The North said it was seizing the buildings as compensation for losses it has sustained since the South stopped sending tours in after a North Korean soldier shot a South Korean tourist who reportedly wandered near a restricted area. The North said the shooting was accidental. For her part, Kim said she plans to continue working, trying to shut out the political posturing. They just work hard. The impoverished North would open a flow of cash into the country through land leases and wages that factories paid to tens of thousands of North Korean workers.
Businesses in the South would get access to low-paid workers for the labor-intensive production of clothes, electronics equipment, kitchen appliances and more. If not for Kaesong, those businesses would have to look to open factories in such countries as Vietnam, Cambodia or Indonesia, according to Ok Sung-seok, president of the Nine Mode Co. South Koreans work primarily in managerial positions, and their pay varies depending on their employer. Most work three or four days a week, and while some return to their homes each day, many stay overnight between workdays in dormitorylike accommodations.
