Are Gaesong Workers Being Exploited?

The Korean government is opposing an article written by Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea, on April 30 that raises questions about the wages and human rights of North Korean workers in the Gaesong Industrial Complex.

The Korean government seemed to be troubled by U.S. President Bush meeting with families of abductees from North Korea and North Korean defectors at the White House on April 28.

South Korea-U.S. tensions surrounding human rights policy in the North are running high.

Lefkowitz wrote the article for the April 28 edition of the Wall Street Journal and it referred to issues of labor extortion from North Korean workers in the Gaesong Industrial Complex. Regarding this, a South Korean government official protested against the article saying that it was intervention in the internal affairs to criticize the Gaesong Industrial Complex with such a biased and distorted point of view.

The government official defined Lefkowitz as a leading U.S. hawk who is trying to put the brakes on U.S. government officials’ understanding the Gaesong Industrial Complex. Another official said that Special Envoy Lefkowitz is not communicating well with other U.S. officials in charge of North Korean issues.

After having a discussion, Cheong Wa Dae and the Ministry of Unification judged that if nothing is done on this issue raised by U.S. Special Envoy Lefkowitz, their plan to attract foreign companies to build factories within the Gaesong Industrial Complex could go wrong. Accordingly, they have decided to take drastic steps.

That step was to eliminate the possibility that the Gaesong Industrial Complex could be added to the list of North Korean human rights issues which has become an international issue after Mr. Bush met the families of abductees from North Korea and North Korean defectors in person.

Special Envoy Lefkowitz argued in his article for the Wall Street Journal that the North Korean government takes away part of the wages of North Korean workers who earn less than two dollars a day and that aid to North Korea which is un-monitorable contributes to sustaining Kim Jong Il’s regime. The article expresses profound concerns about North Korean workers being exploited and not getting paid properly.

Regarding this, a Unification Ministry spokesman made comments on that day that the wage level of North Korean workers in the complex is higher than any other places in the North and that its working environment meets international standards. He also argued that raising questions about a monitoring issue is a non-humanitarian attitude, ignoring the difficult situation faced by the North Korean people.

That President Bush met the families of abductees from North Korea sent a strong message about North Korean human rights, which may have come from decreased expectations from the six-party talks.

Michael Green, the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recently revealed what key figures at the While House have in mind, saying the Bush administration is coming to the conclusion that North Korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear program.

Some experts think that the U.S. election in November is one of the factors why drastic policies on North Korean human rights have come to the fore. They said that a barrage of strong messages to North Korea corresponding with Republican supporters’ principles are coming out, due to the White House’s low approval rating of 36 percent.

But the South Korean government avoided mentioning Bush’s handling of North Korean human rights issues directly. A government source said that the reason why the government strongly responded to the U.S. raising questions about the Gaesong Industrial Complex and referred to it as “intervention in internal affairs” might reflect the government’s general complaints about the U.S.

Myoung-Gun Lee Seung-Ryun Kim gun43@donga.com srkim@donga.com