Hyundai enters N. Korea

Hyundai enters N. Korea

SEOUL (Reuters): North Korea has backed plans by South Korea's Hyundai Group to build a sprawling industrial complex in a rare sign of thawing relations between the rival nations.

Hyundai Group chairman Chung Mong-hun told a news conference the group planned to build a 66 million square metre "special economic complex" in the coastal town of Haeju in communist North Korea.

"I met the (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-il yesterday and...we agreed to quickly push forward with the plans to develop the industrial complex," Chung said.

Chung returned on Saturday to Seoul from a five-day trip to Pyongyang with his father, the founder and honorary chairman of the group, Chung Ju-yong.

Chung Mong-hun said the size and the location of the industrial complex remained flexible and that working level officials from Hyundai and Pyongyang would have to visit the proposed site in Haeju and draw up details for the plans.