EARLY EDITION 18:00 Two Koreas agree to current rates for N. Korean Kaesong worker backpay

ARIRANG NEWS 18:00 Title: Two Koreas agree to current rates for N. Korean Kaesong worker backpay Finally, a small breakthrough in the months-long wage row at the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Park. Seoul′s unification ministry said Friday,... that committees from the two Koreas finally agreed on the payment of overdue wages...for some 53-thousand North Korean workers hired by South Korean firms at the complex. The North has accepted Seoul′s offer to pay those wages at the previously set rate of just over $70 U.S. dollars. Separate consultations will be held to discuss the North′s demand that wages increase to $74 U.S. dollars per month. Title: May 24 punitive sanctions may not be lifted without North′s apology The ruling Saenuri Party and the government said Friday that South Korea needs an apology from the North before it will lift the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship back in 2010. For details we turn to our Ji Myung-kil. The ruling Saenuri Party and unification ministry officials made the agreement during a policy coordination meeting on Friday,... ahead of the fifth anniversary of the May 24 measures imposed by Seoul on Pyongyang. At the meeting, Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said the May 24th sanctions "cannot be lifted under the current circumstances, in which North Korea isn′t taking any steps to take responsibility ." Seoul imposed the sanctions, which ban economic and cultural exchanges with Pyongyang, after the North′s torpedo attack on the South Korean navy corvette Cheonan in March 2010. The North has not yet apologized for the sinking and continues to demand the sanctions be withdrawn. Although the dispute has disrupted inter-Korean relations, the ruling party advised the government to maintain economic ties with the North. The party′s chief policymaker Won Yoo-chul said, "Seoul should show some flexibility in providing humanitarian assistance to Pyongyang and maintain any trilateral economic cooperation projects involving the North, like the Rajin-Khasan logistics project." The symbolic project involves sending coal from Russia′s border city of Khasan to North Korea′s port city of Rajin via a connected railway... and then shipping the coal to South Korea. Last month,... a second shipment of some 140-thousand tons of Russian coal arrived in South Korea via Rajin. Going forward, the ruling party and the government both say they will do their best to monitor inter-Korean relations, following signs of instability in the North, including its recent claim that it test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile. Ji Myung-kil, Arirang News. Title: S. Korea, U.S., Japan to hold trilateral nuke talks in Seoul next week South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold talks in Seoul next week on the North Korea nuclear issue. The meeting follows Pyongyang′s recent claim that it successfully test launched a submarine-launched ballistic