North Korea is holding a South Korean worker at a joint factory park for allegedly denouncing the North's political system and inciting female North Korean employees to flee their country, officials said Monday.

North Korea sent a message early Monday stating it was investigating the South Korean worker but would guarantee the person's safety, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North.

Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo told reporters that the ministry has asked the North to provide the South with details of the incident.
According to Lee, the North said the South Korean denounced the country's political system, and that an investigation was taking place under an inter-Korean accord on the business complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

Later Monday, a senior ministry official told reporters that the North also accused the South Korean worker of "corrupting" female North Korean workers at Kaesong and "instigating" them to defect from the North, according to the ministry. The official declined to give his name, citing department policy, it said.