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Inter-Korean cooperation makes fashionable progress

South Korean actress Kim Tae-hee, center, participates in a fashion show held by South Korean apparel maker Shinwon Co in the inter-Korean industrial park in Kaesong, just north of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula, last Thursday. Shinwon is one of the 15 South Korean firms which started operations seven months ago in a demonstration complex of the 66 million square meter industrial zone, which is still under construction. PHOTO: AFP

Willowy South Korean models skipped down the catwalk in the garment factory in North Korea as western funk and techno-pop blared from the loudspeakers.

They were showing off summer season clothes made a floor below by more than 200 North Korean women in light blue uniforms toiling over sewing machines to the thump of loud North Korean marching music.

The workers were spared the decadent capitalist display because none of them were invited.

It was a promotion by South Korean fashion maker Shinhan which runs the factory in a North Korean industrial park about 5km north of the heavily fortified border with South Korea.

The performance was watched by seven North Korean officials and 400 South Korean guests, including journalists bussed in for the day on Thursday.

"I am happy to make clothes here in cooperation with our southern brothers," said Lee Eun-hee, a 23-year-old North Korean woman.

The factory, run by seven South Korean managers, was free of political slogans and pictures of the country's leader Kim Jong-il, ubiquitous in North Korea homes, offices and public buildings.

Only a dozen workers who were designated as guides to South Korean visitors wore lapel pins with pictures of him or his father, Kim Il-sung, who founded the communist country and died in 1994.

Shinwon is one of the 15 South Korean firms, which started operations seven months ago in a demonstration complex of the 66 million square meter industrial zone, which is still under construction.

"I am fully satisfied with my business here," Shinwon chairman Park Sung-chul said.

He described the Kaesong factory as "most successful" of Shinwon's five overseas operations as it reached the break-even point last month, eight months earlier than he thought.

"At the beginning, many people voiced negative views. However, they were wrong ... as productivity here has improved quickly, partly thanks to easy communication," Park said.

He praised the factory's 281 North Koreans for showing "fraternal love and eagerness" to acquire skills.

Shinwon pays US$57 for each worker to a state manpower agency, roughly one-twentieth of the average wage in South Korea. It was unclear how much of the money went to the North Korean workers, who refused to disclose their take-home pay.

"I am satisfied with my wages," said Lee, who said she has worked in textile factories after vocational training for two years.

The minimum monthly wage for North Korean workers provided by a state agency has been set at US$50 on the basis of a 48-hour week.

Work on the Kaesong industrial park, which is expected to cost about US$4 billion, has suffered delays due to fluctuations in inter-Korean ties.

But Hyun Jeong-eun, 51, the chairwoman of Hyundai Group, rebuffed skepticism over the zone, a direct result of a watershed inter-Korean summit in 2000.

"Shinwon's success proved South and North Korea can do anything if they work together," she said, touting the Kaesong project as the backbone of inter-Korean cooperation.

Hyundai has spearheaded inter-Korean exchanges highlighted by work on relinking roads and railways across the demilitarized zone, which has separated the Korean Peninsula since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

South and North Korean checkpoints are only 4km apart but the cross-border trip took half an hour due to a strict inspection by North Korean border guards and customs officials.
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