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South Korean food maker Maniker plans to open chicken farms in North Korea
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- Maniker Co., a South Korean food maker, said Friday its executives will visit North Korea next month to finalize the company's project to set up chicken farms there.
Maniker, one of the nation's leading chicken-processing companies, has explored ways to build chicken farms in North Korea since 2002 to take advantage of the North's cheap labor.
During the visit in mid-September, Maniker executives and North Korean officials will choose the location of the chicken farms between Sariwon, south of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and Samilpo near Mt. Geumgang on the east coast, the company said in a statement.
North Korea has showed "positive" response to the project, Maniker said.
If the project is successful, Maniker will be the first direct investment by a South Korean company outside an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.
"At this time, we expect the North Korean business project to produce a visible result," said a Maniker official on condition of anonymity.
At the Kaesong industrial zone, located just 70 kilometers north of Seoul, 26 South Korean companies employ about 16,000 North Korean workers who produce garments, kitchenware and a number of other goods.
Though the two Koreas are still technically at war, the two sides have had significant economic cooperation since 2000, when then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il held a historic summit.
The Kaesong complex is one of prominent symbols in inter-Korean rapprochement.
If the industrial zone becomes fully operational by 2012, more than 350,000 North Korean workers will work there, according to the South's unification ministry.
Optimism has been also building over progress in resolving the North's nuclear standoff.
North Korea has shut down its key nuclear facilities at Yongbyon under a February agreement, which was also signed by South Korea, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia.
It now has to disable the Yongbyon facilities and declare all of its nuclear programs in exchange for 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is scheduled to meet the North Korean leader Kim in Pyongyang in early October for their second-ever summit.
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