WORLD BRIEFING / NORTH KOREA
North Korea demanded a 3,000% increase in rent from South Korea for the site of a joint industrial park.
It also sought a more than fourfold increase in wages for North Korean workers employed by South Korean companies at the park, a South Korean official said.
The demand is likely to set back reconciliation moves between the two countries, which have been slowed by North Korea’s recent nuclear and missile tests and the detention of a South Korean worker at the industrial park in Kaesong, a North Korean border town.
More than 100 South Korean companies have factories in the park, employing about 40,000 North Koreans. The North has received $16 million to rent the site for 50 years, but now is demanding $500 million.
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