N.Korea Informs Firms in Gaeseong of Labor Rules

기사입력 2009-03-04 22:59

North Korea has notified South Korean companies in a joint industrial complex in the North of detailed labor standards, according to the Ministry of Unification Wednesday.

The notice stipulated that a company will be fined up to $2,000 if it fails to pay salaries to employees for one month, and face a 10-day suspension of business if delaying payment for two months, a ministry official said.

It also said that South Korean firms in Gaeseong will have to pay much as 300 percent of one-month salary in overtime to workers who have to work more than 24 hours in a row.

``It has been confirmed that no companies have so far been ordered to suspend their business or been fined for violating these standards,'' the official said.

As no official talks have been held between Seoul and Pyongyang, companies in the complex have difficulty dealing with the secretive state's unilateral notice.

North Korea cut off all the communication channels early last year in retaliation for President Lee Myung-bak's tougher stance on the North.

Last December, the isolated state began to restrict border-crossings and expelled almost half of South Korean personnel from the industrial complex.