Seoul - The German electronics and parts manufacturer Prettl announced Wednesday that it will be the first foreign company to build a factory in Stalinist North Korea. The work began Wednesday on the new factory, to be built in an industrial complex run jointly by South Korea in Kaesong near the North-South Korean border, a Prettl Korea spokesman reported from the town of Uiwang near the South Korean capital Seoul. The facility with an area of 11,000 square metres is meant for the production of electronic parts, wiring looms and other parts for the automobile industry. It is expected to be completed in October. Prettl chief Rolf Prettl was quoted in a statement as saying that it was an important day and something special to be a German company with a factory in North Korea. Kaesong was chosen by the company for its low labour costs, with the average North Korean worker earning 60 dollars a month. With more than 5,000 employees, Prettl is an international business group with 25 production facilities in 12 countries around the world. Around 69 companies from South Korea are already based in Kaesong.
Seoul - North Korea publicly executed 13 women and two men for illegally entering neighbouring China in search of food, an aid group said on Wednesday.
The South Korean group Good Friends, which works in the North, said the 15 were shot on a bridge in Juwongu district in the north eastern town of Onseong on February 20 as local residents watched.
Officials at Seoul's unification ministry, which handles relations with the impoverished communist North, could not confirm the report.
Good Friends said in a newsletter the North Korean group had been arrested for illegally crossing the border into China or for helping others to do so, largely to get economic help from relatives there.
Residents were shocked by what they described as "too harsh punishment" with some shedding tears at the scene, according to the aid group.
"The shooting was too much," one resident was quoted as saying. "All those people did it for their livelihood. They got too harsh punishment."
A female resident was quoted as saying: "Everyone is anxious about a lack of food. The shooting has made people angry."
Good Friends, citing an unidentified local official, said the execution aimed to deter a surge of people illegally crossing the border this spring.
"It has become a daily routine for a few residents to disappear and illegally cross the border to visit relatives in China...we shot them to send a warning to people over this," the official said.
Good Friends said unauthorised border crossings are normally punishable with jail terms. The North raised the penalty from three years to a maximum seven years in early 2007, it said.
North Korea suffers severe food shortages and some residents of frontier provinces cross the border to secure supplies before returning.
Others try to flee their homeland through China. Rights groups estimate there are tens of thousands of North Koreans hiding out in north east China.
The refugees often travel on to South East Asian countries in the hope of winning eventual resettlement in South Korea.
