Prediction: the Kaesong worker safety inquiry will be a whitewash.

You may recall that several weeks ago, some North Korean workers at Kaesong fell ill with symptoms of benzene poisoning. The bad news is that we still haven’t heard a peep of protests on the workers’ behalf from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, for some reason. The good news is that the Korean government cares enough about appearances to have ordered a safety inquiry:

The South Korean government began a two-month probe Thursday into the working conditions at 33 factories in the Kaesong Industrial Complex following reports of a suspected benzene poisoning case there.

All of the selected factories use a relatively large amount of chemical materials, according to the unification ministry.

The ministry commissioned the (South) Korean Industrial Health Association to conduct the probe, which is scheduled to last through Nov. 30. The association’s experts are making an on-site inspection to assess the safety and security of the working conditions “through an objective survey” and take measures for systemic management, said the ministry.

In August, North Korea claimed a number of its workers at two car parts makers operating in the industrial park suffered some symptoms of exposure to benzene and other toxic chemicals. [Yonhap]

But the usual problem of transparency in North Korea is already interfering with the investigation’s integrity. Yonhap reports that although “[t]he South has suggested medical checkups to determine the exact cause,” the North Koreans have refused to allow them.

An “investigation” based on incomplete evidence might deceive a few gullible investors, but wouldn’t do much more for the welfare of the workers than the World Food Program’s monitoring has done to end hunger in North Korea. If South Korea really cared about the workers’ welfare, it would close down any enterprises that use toxic chemicals in their processes for which it’s unable to complete a thorough and objective safety review. Better yet, it would also investigate how much of their nominal wages the North Korean workers receive at all.