*** INTER-KOREAN RELATIONS

South Korea to Open Integrated Information Center on North Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to launch an open source center on North Korea in Seoul in February that will provide consolidated information on the isolated socialist country, an official said on Jan. 26.

   The Open Source Center is designed to collect foreign information made public by media reports, press releases and announcements by international organizations, said the official at the Unification Ministry.

   The ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, has hired three experts in English, Chinese and Japanese, and plans to recruit three more experts in English and Russian.

   The ministry plans to restrict the center to its employees for the time being before allowing access by ordinary citizens.

   The ministry has been working to build a database of the North's geography and officials as well as various information.

   Separately, the National Intelligence Service, Seoul's top spy agency, currently provides basic information on North Korea on its Web site.

   North Korea largely remains an intelligence black hole, as the isolated country keeps a tight lid on almost all information and denies its people access to the outside world.

   Still, the wall of secrecy has begun to crack as some North Koreans near the border with China are believed to be using Chinese mobile phones to keep in touch with their relatives and friends in South Korea and China.

   Some North Korean defectors and activists in the South glean information and intelligence on the North through limited communication and interactions with North Koreans.

  
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S. Korea Sends First Flour Aid to N. Korea Since Kim Jong-il's Death

PAJU, South Korea (Yonhap) -- A South Korean charity group on Jan. 27 delivered the first flour aid to North Korea since the death of the North's former leader Kim Jong-il.

   The Seoul-based Korea Peace Foundation delivered 180 tons of flour, with eight foundation representatives traveling to the North's border city of Kaesong.

   Two of the eight representatives will stay until Jan. 28 to ensure the aid package reaches its targeted group, foundation officials said. Flour is to be delivered to an elementary school, a daycare center and a kindergarten in North Hwanghae Province near the Kaesong Industrial complex, officials added.

   "We've resumed humanitarian assistance to North Korea that had been suspended since the death of Kim Jong-il," an official with the foundation said. Kim died of a heart attack on Dec. 17, and Pyongyang announced his passing two days later.

   "We're expecting this flour aid to provide some breakthrough for inter-Korean dialogue," the official added.

   The South government approved the foundation members' trip in mid January. All trips across the border are subject to government permission. The Koreas remain technically at war with each other since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

   While the foundation was carrying flour into the North, the government said Seoul's aid to Pyongyang fell by more than 50 percent last year.

   According to the Unification Ministry, the South's humanitarian aid to the North amounted to 19.6 billion won (US$17.5 million) in 2011, down 51.5 percent from 40.4 billion won in 2010.

   Of the 19.6 billion won, private aid accounted for 13.1 billion won, an annual drop of 68.1 percent, and the government aid totaled 6.5 billion won, down 34.5 percent from a year earlier.

   The ministry said the government sent its aids through United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and private organizations purchased flour, medicines and soy milk, among others.

   The total inter-Korean trade fell by more than 10 percent to 1.71 billion won in 2011, the ministry added.

  
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S. Korea's Ruling Party Takes More Conciliatory Stance on N. Korea

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) plans to remove from its platform a clause calling for human rights improvement and political reform in North Korea, officials said on Jan. 30, a conciliatory gesture toward the socialist state.

   The conservative party's move appears to reflect concerns that the expression could anger Pyongyang at a time of leadership change in the wake of the death of leader Kim Jong-il in December.

   The North has bristled at talk of human rights and reform as an attempt to topple the regime.

   The GNP's emergency council has agreed to remove the article urging Pyongyang to improve human rights in the nation and change its socialist system to a free democracy, as a majority opinion considered the articles could provoke the North in its transition, officials said.

   The revised platform redefines the party's helping role for "North Korea's reform and opening" to focus on supporting the impoverished nation with nuclear ambitions to "become a member of the international community," they noted.
The U.S. maintains sanctions on North Korea mainly over its nuclear weapons programs and weapons proliferation activities. The United Nations separately slapped sanctions on the communist country over its nuclear and missile tests.

   The party will still seek measures to reunify the divided Koreas, which still remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.

   "(The revision) will make it clear that (the party) pursues democratic values and philosophy to peacefully reunify the two Koreas," an emergency council member said.

   The revised article will be included in the party's new platform, which will be confirmed in a general meeting later in the day, officials said.

   The conservative party's platform revision is the latest example showing that the unpopular party is shifting its core political and economic values to shake off its tarnished image ahead of April's general elections.

   It marks the first time in six years the party has sought to revise its policy principles, which traditionally favored a hard-stance on the North and small government.

   "There will be significant changes in the party based on the new party platform," Rep. Park Geun-hye, who leads the emergency council, said at a party meeting.

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S. Korean Lawmakers to Visit Inter-Korean Industrial Park in February

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Eight South Korean lawmakers will visit the inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong next week to meet with officials from South Korean firms operating there, the Seoul government said on Jan. 30.

   The lawmakers, including Rep. Park Joo-sun of the main opposition Democratic United Party, will visit the complex on Feb. 10 with an official from the Unification Ministry, which handles South-North ties, according to ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk. The visitors are all members of the National Assembly's committee for inter-Korean relations or the foreign affairs committee.

   "During the visit, (the lawmakers) will hear about the difficulties of our firms there," Kim told reporters during a press briefing, saying the North was informed of the visit earlier in the day.

   The lawmakers currently have no plans to meet North Korean officials during their stay, he added.

   The complex, a key outcome of the inter-Korean summit in 2000, marries South Korean capital and technology with cheap labor from the North.

   Currently, more than 120 South Korean companies employ more than 48,000 North Korean workers to produce kitchenware, watches, shoes and other labor-intensive goods.

   Despite lingering tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the two Koreas have kept intact the shared complex that serves as a key legitimate cash cow for North Korea.

  
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N. Korean Youth Soccer Team Boycotts Match with S. Korean Players

INCHEON (Yonhap) -- A North Korean youth soccer team boycotted a match with its South Korean counterpart on Jan. 31 in an international soccer event in China, boding ill for future sport exchanges between the two Koreas, officials said.

   The U-14 North Korean and South Korean squads were scheduled to play at a stadium located in China's Yunnan Province. The game was part of the four-day event that kicked off on Jan. 31.

   The event was organized by a South Korean professional soccer team based in Incheon in cooperation with a soccer association in Yunnan. Four youth teams, which also included those from China and Japan, are participating in the event.

   The North Korean players warmed up on the field until just before the game was to start, but sources said their head coach abruptly called them in, and they then left the stadium.

   A North Korean team official reportedly said that they decided to boycott, in line with Pyongyang's recently-announced move to stop exchanges with South Korea.

   The soccer event has been receiving a great deal of attention as it was the first sports exchange planned between the two Koreas since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Dec. 17.

   The city of Incheon in particular has been seeking soccer matches with the North as part of efforts to help ease inter-Korean tensions.

   The boycott, however, is expected to hamper the efforts at a time when the city is planning a friendly match between soccer players of the two Koreas in March, observers said.

  
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Number of North Korean Workers in Kaesong Park Tops 50,000

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korean companies hired nearly 450 new North Korean workers for their factories in the North's border city of Kaesong in late January, pushing the total employment above 50,000 for the first time since 2004, an official said on Feb. 1.

   South Korea opened the sprawling factory park in Kaesong in 2004 in a symbolic project to combine its capital and technology with the North's cheap labor amid reconciliation following the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.

   The number of North Korean workers in Kaesong stood at 50,315 as of January, the official said, adding the workers, mostly women, have a low turnover rate in a sign that the complex is popular among North Koreans.

   The development is the latest indication that the two divided Koreas want to keep intact the joint complex despite lingering tensions over the North's two deadly attacks on the South in 2010.

   Currently, a total of 123 South Korean companies in Kaesong produce clothes, utensils, watches and other goods, the official said, adding that South Korea needs additional 20,000 North Korean workers.

   In 2011, the production of the industrial complex reached an all-time high of US$400 million. The complex have produced US$1.5 billion worth of products since 2004.

   The project serves as a key legitimate cash cow for the impoverished communist country. South Korea said it has so far paid more than $193 million to North Korean workers.

   In 2010, South Korea's per-capita gross national income stood at $20,759, which is 19.3 times larger than the North's $1,074, according to Statistics Korea.

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