North Korea is said to have insisted on wage hikes for its workers at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex following Seoul’s rejection of a demand to renovate and repair infrastructure at the site last year.

A Seoul official said the North asked South Korea to repair water pipes in the first half of last year to prevent a leak of drinking water supplied to North Korean residents via a water purification plant within the industrial park. The Seoul government is said to have rejected the demand.

The purification plant supplies 16-thousand tons of water a day, with five thousand tons consumed at the complex and the remainder supplied to the city of Gaeseong.
 
The official said that the North also asked the South to repair roads used by Gaeseong workers.

The official said that Pyongyang announced its unilateral decision to raise wages for its workers after those demands were rejected.

Meanwhile, heads of South Korean firms operating in the complex plan to visit North Korea on Wednesday to call on North Korean authorities to resolve the wage issue.

The Unification Ministry in Seoul has reaffirmed its position that it will not accept the North’s unilateral wage hike demand, vowing to try to minimize losses of South Korean firms in the event that the North pulls its workers from the site.