Three South Korean firms have paid more wages for North Korean workers in the Kaesong Industrial Complex as Pyongyang demanded, a government source here said Monday.
Their move runs counter to the South Korean government's firm stance not to accept the communist neighbor's unilateral decision to raise wages for its 53,000 workers in the North's border town.
The North unilaterally decided to raise the minimum wage by 5.18 percent to US$74 per month, starting in March, for those workers employed by the 124 South Korean small- and medium-sized firms in the Kaesong zone.
Three of the firms paid the increased wages, the source said.
They are expected to face administrative punitive action from Seoul's government.
The South's unification ministry, meanwhile, dismissed news reports that the North extended a deadline for the payment of the March wage.
Returning from a one-day trip to Kaesong, a representative from a group of South Korean businessmen with factories in Kaesong said the North showed some flexibility.
"The North decided to extend the deadline until April 24. None of the South Korean firms have paid the wages," said Yoo Chang-geun, vice president of the group.
But the ministry said it's still early to say that the North has extended the deadline.
Seoul points out that Pyongyang violated a 2004 agreement that calls for two quasi-government committees from each side to set the wages together.
The wage cap has been set at 5 percent per year.
The two Koreas have held the talks on the wage dispute twice so far through a quasi-government committee, but they failed to produce a breakthrough.
"There is no change in Seoul's stance that the wage dispute should be resolved through consultations," Lim Byeong-cheol, spokesman at the unification ministry, said at a press briefing on Monday.
"We plan to come up with measures to minimize any potential damage to South Korean firms, such as providing them with financial compensation."
South Korean firms have been squeezed as the Seoul government has asked them not to accept the North's decision while the North has threatened to collect an arrears charge if they do not pay the higher wages.
South Korea is concerned that the wage row could set a precedent for the North to make unilateral decisions on the operations of the industrial park.
The Kaesong Industrial Complex opened in the early 2000s, the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. It has served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped communist North. (Yonhap)
