You all doubtless remember Kim Jung Il, the Armageddon-friendly Communist fruitbat in charge of one of the world's few remaining medieval kingdoms, North Korea. Well, it seems Kim has taken just a middling interest in modernity, having allowed go-go capitalists from South Korea to invest $2 billion for a small pilot project in the 6,000-acre Kaesong Industrial District, across the DMZ in North Korea. The district is a breakthrough experiment in economic cooperation between liberalized South Korea and the Dark North. Some 700,000 workers are expected to be employed there by 2012. South Korean companies get cheap labor; North Korea's workers get actual wages and meals, instead of scavenging nearly-barren fields for wheat grains (see first link, above). While Kim is seemingly open to a bit of carefully-modulated outside influence, old habits die hard, as The L.A. Times reports.

The contrast is particularly glaring when coming from Seoul, the high-tech, neon-lighted capital of the world's 12th-largest economy. Around the industrial park, which lies outside the center of the city of Kaesong, there is little but desiccated rice paddies and yellow hills denuded long ago by people scavenging for firewood. Nearby is an abandoned agricultural college, its crumbling facade decorated with a faded red sign trumpeting the achievements of the North Korean Workers Party. Scrawny goats graze outside two-story whitewashed houses with windows covered in plastic sheeting. The industrial park itself is surrounded by 5 miles of fencing and poker-faced, rifle-toting North Korean soldiers.

....the North Koreans keep a tight rein on the work environment. No South Korean money is accepted here, even at a Family Mart convenience store set up for the exclusive use of South Korean employees. North Korean patriotic music in praise of Kim blares over the loudspeakers of a futuristic warehouse where North Korean women in crisp blue uniforms stitch athletic shoes using brand-new sewing machines. The monthly salaries of $57.50 for each North Korean worker — regardless of position — are paid directly to the North Korean government, which in turn gives the workers about $8, more than double the average monthly salary. South Korean companies have asked repeatedly to pay the workers directly and to give bonuses for better work, but have been refused. Even New Year's gifts such as extra food and warm clothing could be given only after elaborate negotiations to make sure everybody was getting the same.

I'm sure that North Koreans must have great government health care, especially with the cost savings from the 3.6 to 6 million of them whose premature deaths were caused by the country's communist leaders from the mid-20th Century forward. Perhaps many had decent burials - although somehow I rather doubt it. Meanwhile, no expense has been spared for Kim. Truly, some animals are created more equal than others.

TECHNORATI TAGS: SOUTH KOREA, NORTH KOREA, KAESONG, KIM JONG IL, WAGE CONTROLS, NUCLEAR WEAPONS, SUSHI CHEF

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 28, 2006 04:05 PM