Seoul, August 10: The head of South Korean’s Hyundai group crossed into North Korea on Monday to discuss the release of an employee detained since March by the communist state.
There is growing media speculation the North may free the worker surnamed Yu after it pardoned two US journalists during former president Bill Clinton’s surprise visit to Pyongyang last week.
Group chairwoman Hyun Jung-Eun will discuss the detainee’s release, the resumption of tourists trips to the North and ways to put inter-Korean business back on track, said a spokesman for Hyundai Asan, a group subsidiary which manages its businesses in the North.
Hyun crossed the land border through the Demilitarised Zone en route to Pyongyang after telling reporters she would “make efforts” for Yu’s release. She is expected to return on Wednesday.
The spokesman said there are no plans at present for her to meet leader Kim Jong-Il, as she did during a Pyongyang visit in 2007.
The North’s ties with the South have been icy for the past 16 months, and regional tensions are high following its rocket launch in April and nuclear test in May.
But Clinton held three-and-a-half hours of talks with Kim during his surprise visit to secure the release of the reporters sentenced to a labour camp after crossing the border with China.
US National Security Adviser Jim Jones said on Sunday the North had signalled during its meetings with Clinton that it wants a better relationship with the United States.
Koh Yu-Hwan, a North Korea studies professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University, said better ties with Seoul were a precondition for Pyongyang to improve relations with Washington.
The North has since March 30 detained the Hyundai Asan engineer who worked at the Seoul-funded Kaesong estate in the North.
It accuses him of insulting its system and urging a North Korean worker to defect, but refuses to give Seoul officials access to the man or say where he is now being held.
South Korean politicians and activists have complained that the North has treated the engineer — a fellow Korean — worse than it did the American women, who were allowed diplomatic access and phone calls home.
–Agencies