2007年VOA标准英语-North Korean Workers Get a Raise - From South K

By Kurt Achin
Seoul
06 August 2007

South Korean authorities have agreed to raise wages at a North-South joint¹ venture in North Korea for the first time since the experimental zone was opened three years ago. The Kaesong venture is hailed in South Korea as a step toward North-South reconciliation². But as VOA's Kurt Achin reports from Seoul, concerns remain about ambiguities³ in the zone's operations.

maker4 Shinwon company in inter-Korean industrial park in Kaesong (file photo)" hspace="2" src="/upimg/allimg/070811/0825380.jpg" width="210" vspace="2" border="0" />

North Korean female workers at factory of South Korean apparel maker Shinwon company in inter-Korean industrial park in Kaesong (file photo)

The new pay rate guarantees the zone's 15,000 North Korean workers a minimum wage of $52.50 per month - a tiny fraction of what South Korean laborers⁶ receive.

The five percent increase is a compromise with the North, which announced several weeks ago that the Kaesong workers would "go on strike" if their pay was not boosted by 15 percent.

That threat may sound ironic⁷ to human-rights advocates, who say North Korean workers have no right to strike. Kay Seok is a South Korean representative of Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based activist⁸ organization.

"When it comes to the most basic worker's rights issues, for example, the right to select their own representatives, the right to engage in collective bargaining - none of it is guaranteed there."

Seok's organization has conducted extensive studies of the Kaesong zone, which South Korean authorities call as much a political experiment as a business venture. It was funded and built by the South Korean government and Hyundae Asan, a private company, in 2004.

The project followed a first-of-its-kind North-South summit that set the tone for a new era of cooperation between the Cold War rivals.

The zone combines South Korean managers and capital with cheap North Korean labor⁵ to produce basic goods like apparel and kitchenware. Supporters say South Korean companies get to slash⁹ their costs, while communist North Korea gets a real world lesson in capitalism¹⁰ - all the while deepening the roots of North-South reconciliation.

Like much that happens in secretive North Korea, the Kaesong payroll¹¹ process is far from transparent¹².

Wages do not go directly to the workers, but to the North Korean government. Pyongyang says it deducts¹³ about 10 percent for what it describes as a social welfare fund, and pays most of the rest in the form of food and other goods.

How much actual cash the workers end up receiving is unclear. What is certain is the form in which they receive it: North Korean won, at Pyongyang's official exchange rate of 151 to the dollar.

Seok says that is a lot less than they could get if they received the original U.S. dollars.

"North Korean currency is one of those that have a huge discrepancy¹⁴ between the official exchange rate and the black market rate. Imagine the North Koreans got paid in actual U.S. dollars. They would be making many, many times more than they do."

The United States and the European Union have rejected South Korean proposals for including Kaesong-produced goods in free-trade deals. They say too little is known about the workers' real conditions.

South Korean officials have organized a series of visits to the Kaesong zone for journalists and other international visitors. But access to workers themselves is tightly controlled, and workers are forbidden from discussing their salaries.

South Korean authorities say they expect Kaesong's procedures to become more transparent in the future, but North Korea has rejected calls from the United States and elsewhere for international supervision¹⁵ of the zone.

1 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

2 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

3 ambiguities   

n.歧义( ambiguity的名词复数 )；意义不明确；模棱两可的意思；模棱两可的话

参考例句：

• His reply was full of ambiguities. 他的答复非常暧昧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Fortunately, no ambiguities hang about this word or about its opposite, indeterminism. 值得庆幸的是，关于这个词和它的反义词，非决定论都不存在多种解释。 来自哲学部分

4 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

7 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

8 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

9 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

10 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

11 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

12 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

13 deducts   

v.扣除，减去( deduct的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• At the time negotiation, the local bank deducts the loan and the interest. 议付时，当地银行扣除先前的贷款和利息。 来自辞典例句
• After commissariat is sold, cooperation deducts cost, return money to every farmer. 在粮食销售之后，合作社扣除成本，把钱退还给每个农户。 来自互联网

14 discrepancy   

n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾

参考例句：

• The discrepancy in their ages seemed not to matter.他们之间年龄的差异似乎没有多大关系。
• There was a discrepancy in the two reports of the accident.关于那次事故的两则报道有不一致之处。

15 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。