NEWSLINE AT NOON Live: S. Korean businessmen head to Kaesong for wage talks with N. Korea

NEWSLINE AT NOON 12:00 Coming up on this Wednesday edition of Newsline at Noon,... President Park Geun-hye calls on rival party leaders to get behind her economic revitalization drive,... but she butts heads with the chief of the main opposition over a number of issues. The possible deployment to the Korean peninsula of a U.S. missile defense system called THAAD is stirring tension between China and the U.S,... as Seoul and Washington gear up for high-level talks on the issue next month. Plus,... representatives of South Korean companies operating at the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial park are currently in the North to discuss Pyongyang′s unilateral decision to hike wages at the complex. These stories and more on Newsline at Noon. It′s noon, Wednesday, March 18th, here in Korea. Thanks for tuning in. Live from Seoul... I′m Eoh Jin-joo. Good to have you with us,... I′m Mark Broome. Title: Live: S. Korean businessmen head to Kaesong for wage talks with N. Korea We start with the wage tussle just north of the inter-Korean border... Taking matters into their own hands, some South Korean businessmen are currently locked in talks with North Korean officials at the Kaesong Industrial Complex to try and find a solution to this intensifying row. Tensions have been brewing ever since North Korea called for a unilateral raise for its workers last month. For more, let′s go live to our correspondent Hwang Sung-hee...who′s standing by near the inter-Korean border. Sung-hee, what message do these South Korean businessmen have for North Korea? Hi guys,... well the message couldn′t be clearer. They don′t want the factory park to be influenced by political tensions anymore. That was one of the key agreements reached between the two Koreas when the Kaesong Industrial Complex was reopened after a five-month-long suspension two years ago. Take a listen. "We will explain to the North Korean officials about the problems that can arise from a unilateral revision of regulations in the overall management of the complex and ask for the park to be managed according to previous agreements." The 14 businessmen who departed for Kaesong this morning... blamed anti-North Korea leaflet launches by South Korean activists for stirring up tensions and halting talks between the Koreas. They say North Korea′s demands a wage hike for their workers from the current 70 U.S. dollars a month to 74 dollars and a revision of regulations are something that could be resolved peacefully if it wasn′t for such tensions. And Sung-hee... North Korea actually called for a meeting with South Korean firms yesterday, right? Yeah, that′s right,... but no South Korean representatives turned up. The South Korean government told the businessmen not to respond and called for a separate meeting yesterday afternoon. So we don′t know for sure if the group that went in today will succeed in meeting with the North Korean officials there. One businessman that I talked to