Koreas embark on trip to joint factories in China, Vietnam

Officials of South and North Korea left for China on Saturday to begin their survey of factory parks overseas in a bid to enhance the operation of their joint industrial complex in the North, Seoul's Unification Ministry said.

A team of 10 officials from each side left for Qingdao, an industrial port town in southern China, after which they will travel to Suzhou, a hub for China's silk industry, Shenzhen, a southern financial center, and finally Yenpong, a Vietnamese complex near Hanoi. The trip will end on Dec. 22, according to the ministry.

"The survey is aimed at taking an intensive look at factors that help improve the competitiveness of the factory complexes being run successfully overseas," the ministry said in a statement.

The North's agreement last month to hold the survey was a sign that it wants to keep up the joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong. The park's fate came into question earlier this year amid deteriorating inter-Korean relations and North Korean demands to sharply raise wages and land fees paid by South Korean firms.

The Kaesong venture opened in 2004 as a result of the historic first inter-Korean summit in 2000. Currently 116 South Korean firms operate there with more than 40,800 North Korean workers, producing mostly labor-intensive goods such as electronics, clothing and kitchenware.