AGL 41.50 Increased By ▲ 2.96 (7.68%)
AIRLINK 128.00 Decreased By ▼ -1.50 (-1.16%)
BOP 6.26 Increased By ▲ 0.65 (11.59%)
CNERGY 4.13 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (6.99%)
DCL 8.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-3.32%)
DFML 40.69 Decreased By ▼ -1.07 (-2.56%)
DGKC 87.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.40 (-0.45%)
FCCL 34.10 Decreased By ▼ -0.90 (-2.57%)
FFBL 66.33 Decreased By ▼ -1.02 (-1.51%)
FFL 10.56 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.47%)
HUBC 108.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.06%)
HUMNL 14.46 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-1.36%)
KEL 4.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-2.11%)
KOSM 7.33 Increased By ▲ 0.38 (5.47%)
MLCF 42.72 Increased By ▲ 1.07 (2.57%)
NBP 60.84 Increased By ▲ 1.24 (2.08%)
OGDC 178.97 Decreased By ▼ -4.03 (-2.2%)
PAEL 25.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.55 (-2.1%)
PIBTL 6.06 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (1.51%)
PPL 146.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.55 (-0.37%)
PRL 24.91 Increased By ▲ 1.30 (5.51%)
PTC 16.14 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-2.54%)
SEARL 70.20 Increased By ▲ 1.90 (2.78%)
TELE 7.22 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.14%)
TOMCL 36.20 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (0.7%)
TPLP 7.84 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.13%)
TREET 15.59 Increased By ▲ 1.39 (9.79%)
TRG 50.36 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.18%)
UNITY 26.90 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (0.56%)
WTL 1.24 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (2.48%)
BR100 9,795 Decreased By -11.1 (-0.11%)
BR30 29,647 Decreased By -31.2 (-0.1%)
KSE100 92,021 Decreased By -282.9 (-0.31%)
KSE30 28,665 Decreased By -175.5 (-0.61%)

South Korean business leaders operating joint ventures in North Korea vowed Saturday to continue their operations despite intense pressure to stem the flow of cash to Pyongyang over its nuclear test.
The leaders made the pledge after meeting at the Kaesong industrial park, just north of the Korean border, to discuss UN sanctions imposed over the Stalinist state's first atom bomb test, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.
"Businesses in the zone (park) should not be swayed by international politics, as they are run 100 percent on private investment," said Kim Ki-mun who represents South Korean companies in the park.
"We will do our best in building successive cases of capital from the South combined with manpower and land resources in the North," Yonhap quoted Kim saying after he arrived back in Seoul from the meeting.
Kim, chairman of watchmaker Romanson Co, downplayed concerns that profits from the park were going to a regime bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
He valued overseas shipments of products produced at the park at 15 million US dollars. And he called on the South Korean government to support the mostly small to medium sized companies operating there in their drive to become more competitive.
The main opposition party here has demanded that the park and Mount Kumgang tourist resort, both built in the North with the South's money, be scrapped, while government officials indicate they are irrelevant to the UN sanctions imposed on the North. Kaesong, where thousands of North Koreans work for 15 South Korean companies just north of the heavily fortified border, was opened in 2004.
Seoul hopes to make it a development model, combining its capital and the North's cheap labour, to reduce tensions, which have existed since the 1950-1953 Korean War. Workers earn a minimum wage of 57 dollars a month but 30 percent of this is deducted by their government for social and health insurance fees. Seoul hopes to attract some 3,000 factories there by 2024.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006

Comments

Comments are closed.