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About half of some 200 local laborers who have been involved in the construction of nuclear power plants North Korea for the Korea Energy Development Corp. (KEDO) have been refusing to come to work and are demanding higher wages. Those still reporting to the work site have also been slowing down their work pace since the beginning of this month due to dissatisfaction with their pay. The protest has seen a bottleneck in the progress of the international project involving the Koreas, Japan, the U.S. and the EU.

Officials from the South Korean government and the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) said Friday that the workers’ protest began April 1. According to these officials, work for the project has been intensifying and requires more local workers, so the walk-off and slow-down have thrown the project off schedule. The officials also said that their two organizations have already started negotiations with North Korean authorities to find an amicable solution to the situation. They said they have been considering ways to increase the wages of the workers or to send in more South Korean laborers to the site to put the construction back on schedule.

North Korean authorities had earlier agreed with KEDO that local workers would have a 2.5% wage increase annually, but the workers have been demanding that their wages, currently ranging from US$110-220 per month, be raised to US$600 per month. Reports that the North Korean laborers were threatening to walk off the site first surface last October.

South Korean officials said ongoing construction requires more manpower for completion of land reclamation work. According to KEPCO, the KEDO construction project currently requires about 400 workers, with the number expected to go to as high as 1,000 by the end of the year.