**韩朝就开城工业园区工薪问题举行会谈**
朝鲜和韩国官员星期四举行会谈，争取解决双方长期以来围绕开城工业园区工人工资问题的分歧。
一个韩国代表团星期四清晨启程前往开城工业园区。该园区位于事态紧张的南北朝分界线上朝鲜一侧。
韩国代表团团长李相民说，自今年6月以来，这将是负责运营开城工业园区的联合委员会首次举行会谈。
从3月开始，朝鲜单方面将园区内的朝鲜工人最低月薪从70.35美元提高到74美元，双方就这一问题进行了持续一个月的争执。
韩国坚持说，对工薪所做的任何调整都必须由双方共同决定。
开城工业园区有大约120家韩国工厂，雇用着5万3千多名朝鲜工人。该园区于2004年开始运营，是南北双方为数不多的经济合作项目之一。
North, South Korea Hold Talks On Kaesong Wage Dispute
North and South Korea officials hold talks Thursday aimed at resolving a protracted wage dispute at a jointly run factory complex.
A South Korean delegation left early Thursday for the Kaesong Industrial Complex, which lies on the North Korean side of the countries' tense border.
Lee Sang-min, head of the Seoul delegation, said it will be the first meeting since June for the joint commission in charge of running the complex.
The two sides have been mired in a months-long dispute over the North's unilateral move to raise the minimum monthly wage for its workers at the complex from $70.35 to $74.00, starting in March.
South Korea insists that any wage change must be determined through mutual agreement.
More than 53,000 North Korean workers are employed by about 120 South Korean factories in the park, which opened in 2004 and is one of
the few areas of North-South economic cooperation.
**巴基斯坦期待从伊核协议受益**
巴基斯坦希望成为伊核协议最早的受益国之一。预计一个长期停顿的天然气管道工程最终将得以完成。中国资金将为实现这个目标提供巨大帮助。
巴基斯坦多年来一直计划修建一条管道，从伊朗进口天然气，以缓解严重的能源短缺。
但对伊朗的制裁使管道工程陷于停顿。因此巴基斯坦计划在中国的帮助下开始一个并行的项目，在南部港口城市瓜达尔修建一个液化天然气终端，用一条700公里长的管道连接巴基斯坦其他地区。
这个项目预计10月开工，两年半完成。巴基斯坦石油部长阿巴西说，这条管道在适当时候将与伊朗-巴基斯坦天然气管道连接。他说：“制裁取消之后，我们需要修建的管道就只剩下80公里了，大约用6个月的时间就可以建成。”
阿巴西说，项目资金将来自巴基斯坦和中国，但主要来自中国。他说：“这是个20亿美元的项目，85%来自中国承包商，其余15%由巴基斯坦石油部提供。”
瓜达尔港也是中巴经济走廊的核心。中巴经济走廊将开辟连接中国西部地区和海洋的通道，大大降低中国向中东和欧洲出口商品的运输时间和成本。
Pakistan Looks to Benefiting from Iran Nuclear Deal, with Chinese Help
Pakistan is hoping to be one of the early beneficiaries of the nuclear deal Iran has struck with six world powers. A long stalled gas pipeline project is expected to finally be completed. And Chinese money will go a long way towards reaching that goal.
Pakistan has been planning to build a pipeline to import gas from Iran for years—to help with its crippling energy shortage.
But work on the pipeline was stalled due to sanctions on Iran. So Pakistan planned a parallel project with the help of China - a liquid natural gas or LNG terminal on its southern port city Gwadar, with a 700 kilometer long pipeline to other areas of the country.
The project is expected to start in October and take 30 months to build. And Pakistan’s petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi says the same pipeline will turn into the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline when the time comes.
“So as soon as we see that the sanctions are lifted or being lifted, there’s only 80 kilometer stretch of pipeline that we have to build. And that can be built in about six months.”
The petroleum minister explained that funding for this project will be provided by both Pakistan and China, but mostly China.
“It’s a $2 billion project and 85 percent of it is being financed by the Chinese EPC company and 15 percent will be provided by the Ministry of Petroleum.”
The same Pakistani port will be at the heart of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor — which plans to join western China to the sea, and drastically reduce shipping times and costs from China to the Middle East and Europe.
