The Republic of Korea (RoK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) resumed talks over a joint business park on June 19 amid escalated tension in the Korean peninsula, according to local media.  

The talks are a follow-up to the first round last week and come after RoK President Lee Myung-bak vowed a stern response to Pyongyang's behavior in a summit with US President Barack Obama earlier this week, Yonhap news agency reported on June 19.

“The talks started at 10 am as scheduled” at the joint park in the border town of Kaesong, an official from the Unification Ministry said.
 

Watchers doubt there will be any room for negotiations, with few signs of compromise from both sides, Yonhap said.

Issues to be discussed would be DPRK’s demands that RoK firms quadruple monthly wages for its workers to 300 USD from the current 70-80 USD and raise collective land rent to 500 million USD, a 31-fold increase from the 16 million USD paid when the park opened in 2004.  

The joint park was born out of the first historic inter-Korean summit in 2000. More than 100 RoK firms currently operate there, making clothes, kitchenware, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods with about 40,000 employees from the DPRK./.