North Korea indicated during the second government-level talks Friday that it was willing to completely lift restrictions on inter-Korean boarder-crossings imposed last December in a bid to help solve problems at companies operating in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.
Meanwhile, the South Korean delegation called for the prompt release of a worker detained in the North and suggested making the industrial park an internationally competitive complex.
``Through the 40-minute key note speech, we proposed having a joint inspection of industrial complexes in third countries, starting from July,'' Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters.
``The first destinations would be Asian countries such as China and Vietnam, the second areas would be central Asia and the final places would be America,'' he added.
North Korea's response to the proposal has yet to be reported, a government official said on condition of anonymity.
More than 100 local companies running factories in the industrial park have had difficulty doing business there after North Korea began to restrict border crossings in retaliation for the Lee Myung-bak administration's tougher stance toward it.
Some conservative civic groups fueled Ptongyang's anger by sending fliers attached to balloons across the border criticizing North Korea leader Kim Jong-il's dictatorship.
The secretive state claimed during the second meeting that the early payment for rent of the complex should be settled first, the spokesman said.
The Ministry of Unification defined the meeting as a second round of negotiations, seeing the April 21 talks as a preliminary contact.
Pyongyang in the previous meeting last Thursday asked for the South to pay $500 million for the use of 1-million-pyeong of land (approximately 3.3 square kilometers) in the complex and increase the monthly salary of workers there to $300 from the current $70-80.
The five delegates from Seoul, instead, called on their counterparts to immediately release a South Korean detainee and rejected North Korea's demands.
President Lee also affirmed earlier that Seoul cannot accept the North's excessive demands to quadruple wages and hike the rent 31-fold.
The delegates urged North Korea to set free the 34-year-old Hyundai Asan worker identified as Yu, who has been held at the complex for more than 80 days.
He was detained late March on charges of making derogatory comments about the North Korean regime and attempting to entice a North Korean female worker to defect to the South.
North Korean authorities have refused to allow South Korean officials and attorneys to see him.
The two sides agreed to have a third round of talks on July 2.
By Kim Sue-young
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