South Korea to build nursery for North Korean mothers

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will build a day-care center for North
Korean children whose mothers work at a joint industrial park, Seoul officials
said Monday.
About 300 North Korean nursing mothers are currently employed by South Korean
firms operating in the inter-Korean complex in the North Korean border town of
Kaesong. The complex employs about 38,000 North Korean workers in total,
according to the Unification Ministry.
"We've selected a firm for the construction of the nursery and signed the
contract on Dec. 31," ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun told reporters.
The Kaesong industrial complex, just a few kilometers north of the inter-Korean
border in the west, started production in 2004 and is a major reconciliatory
project. Currently, 93 South Korean firms produce clothes, watches and
kitchenware there, joining South Korean capital and technology with North Korea's
cheap but skilled labor. A North Korean worker earns US$75 per month on average.
The children have been so far taken care of in a "makeshift nursery" operated by
North Korea while their mothers work, according to another ministry official,
Park Yong-ju. The new day-care center will be completed within this year on a
budget of 900 million won (US$685,192) and accommodate about 200 children in its
single-floor building, he said.
North Korea recently expelled hundreds of South Koreans from the Kaesong complex
in retaliation against South Korea's hardline stance towards Pyongyang.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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