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N. Korea demands US$100 annual fee per S. Korean
SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has demanded that every South Korean resident in the North's Kaesong industrial park, built with South Korea's investment under a 2000 inter-Korean summit agreement, pay an annual registration fee of US$100, a Unification Ministry official said Sunday.
About 800 South Koreans, mostly government officials and businessmen of South Korean companies that invested in the Kaesong complex, work in the industrial complex. One of the most conspicuous inter-Korean rapprochement projects, the complex is located just north of the Demilitarized Zone, which has divided the Korean Peninsula for the past half century.
"North Korea has informed us that they will block the entry of any South Koreans who fail to pay the registration fee from Feb. 11," the official said. "The North set the fee unilaterally, and we are negotiating to make it more reasonable, although the amount is not excessive."
The North also set at US$35 a registration fee for South Koreans staying in Kaesong less than 90 days, according to the official.
North Korea promulgated regulations in 2003 for imposing registration fees on South Korean residents in Kaesong.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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