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SEOUL: A South Korean business leader left Friday for North Korea to seek the release of an employee detained for allegedly criticising its regime, officials said.
Cho Kun-Shik, president of Hyundai Asan which runs joint ventures in the North, is on a one-day trip to a Seoul-funded industrial estate at Kaesong just north of the border, the unification ministry said.
He will hold talks with North Korean officials on a Hyundai Asan employee detained five days ago, ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo told reporters.
North Korea is still refusing to grant access to the man who is believed still held at Kaesong, the spokeswoman said.
Pyongyang has alleged that the employee at the estate criticised its regime and tried to persuade a local woman worker to defect.
It promised to guarantee the detainee's human rights but has not responded to Seoul's repeated calls for his early release.
South Korean business representatives have played down the case, saying it might have been fuelled by a discussion over drinks rather than politics.
The case comes amid high tensions over a rocket the north is expected to launch between Saturday and Tuesday. The United States, South Korea and Japan say its real purpose is to test a long-range missile.
The North is also holding two US journalists for an alleged illegal border crossing and "hostile acts" and says it will put them on trial.
Kaesong opened in 2005 as a symbol of reconciliation between two countries still technically at war following their 1950-1953 conflict, but its operations have often been hampered by political tensions.
- AFP
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