Kaesong Death Watch

North Korea’s latest demands seem calculated to drive away investors:

Although it was expected that North Korea would ask for higher salaries during the talks, an increase of more than fourfold was a surprise and is unlikely to be accepted by the South Koreans, who pay about $170 a month to Chinese laborers at their factories in China.

“That’s nonsense!” Park Jung-ho, a former official of a shoe factory operating in Kaesong, said of the North’s wage demand. “We have to look at the productivity of North Korean workers. If South Korean workers produce, say, 100, North Koreans only produce 30.”  [AP]