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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 five kilometers (3.2 miles) 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
demostration 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 in April, 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 skill.
Shinwon pays 57 dollars 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 satified 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 50
dollars on the basis of a 48-hour week.
Work on the Kaesong industrial park,
which is expected to cost about four billion dollars,
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 1950-53 Korean War.
Heavy construction equipment and trucks
were seen moving earth in the vast zone, while North Korean
soldiers used shovels to level ground along a nearby railway
running in parallel with a cross-border road.
South and North Korean checkpoints are
only four kilometers apart but the cross-border trip took
half an hour due to a strict inspection by North Korean
border guards and customs officials.
Cash-strapped North Korea, which relies
on outside aid to feed its people, has been pushing hard
for economic cooperation with its southern neighbour.
But at the same time, it puts a break on the "ideological
pollution" of democracy and capitalism.
"The real danger to North Korea
is not the threats of its enemies but the kindness of
countries who want to help, like South Korea," said
Peter Beck, Seoul-based Northeast Asia Project Director
for the International Crisis Group.
Since last year North Korean authorities
have been campaigning against South Korean videos of soap
operas that have been smuggled into the country and are
wildly popular there, acording to press reports here.
Early this year a state campaign was
launched against "decadent" long hair, as Pyongyang's
young people began aping South Korean styles after watching
the programs.
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