SEOUL, May 9 (UPI) -- Seoul's unification minister Tuesday visited a joint industrial complex in North Korea despite U.S. criticism of the inter-Korean project.
Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, accompanied by a group of some 160 officials and business representatives, inspected the complex in Kaesong, just north of the heavily fortified border, according to ministry officials.
"One of the main purposes of his visit is to reaffirm the government's unswerving determination to make the Kaesong project a success," the official said.
The one-day trip has long been delayed in the wake of the North's angry response to Seoul's joint military drills held with the United States earlier this year. Lee, the main architect of the South's reconciliation policy toward North Korea, took office in February.
The Kaesong complex, located just north of the heavily fortified border, is considered one of the main achievements of the landmark 2000 Korean summit. The zone is a testing ground for mixing South Korean capitalism and technology with the North's cheap labor.
More than 6,500 North Korean workers are already working for a dozen South Korean firms operating in the joint complex, with the number expected to increase to more than 350,000 by 2012, when the industrial complex goes into full swing.
But the United States is concerned that "strategic products," such as precision machinery and high-tech personal computers, developed in the industrial park could be used to the North's advantage.
