ID :
32579
Thu, 11/27/2008 - 06:39
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/32579
The shortlink copeid
S. Korea plans to begin pulling staffers from N. Korea this weekend
By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to withdraw all staffers from the only joint office in North Korea this weekend in line with the communist nation's plan to close the office, officials said Wednesday.
Marking a new escalation of tension between the two Koreas, North Korea
announced on Monday that it will, starting next week, shut down the Inter-Korean
Exchanges and Cooperation Consultation Office within the joint industrial
complex in Kaesong and reduce the number of South Koreans working at the joint
industrial and tourism estates in Kaesong and Mount Geumgang.
The North said its measures were aimed at punishing Seoul for its failure to
change its hard-line policy toward Pyongyang despite repeated such calls from the
communist neighbor.
"We informed the North yesterday of our plans to bring back on Friday six members
of the office and three others of outsourcing firms across the military
demarcation line into the South and detailed schedules for vacating the office,"
Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry dealing with North Korea
affairs, told reporters.
But the North has yet to respond to the plans, he said.
Six staff from each of the two Koreas have been working at the office since North
Korea ejected all 11 South Korean governmental officials in March, protesting at
Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong's remarks that the Kaesong industrial complex
will not be further expanded without progress in Pyongyang's denuclearization.
Negotiations are under way to decide how many people should withdraw from the
tourism estates of Kaesong and Mount Geumgang, spokesman Kim said, adding that
Seoul on Tuesday provided the North with a list on who would stay or who would
leave, at its request.
Currently 88 small-sized South Korean garment and other manufacturers operate in
the Kaesong complex with more than 36,000 North Korean and 1,500 South Korean
employees.
Inter-Korean relations have chilled since South Korea's conservative President
Lee Myung-bak took office in February and pledged to get tough with the
nuclear-armed communist neighbor.
North Korea has limited the number of South Korean workers who can stay at the
Mount Geumgang resort to 200 since a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a
North Korean soldier after she entered an off-limit zone in early July.
The "initial" retaliatory steps to be taken by the North on Dec. 1 also include
suspending the South Korea-run sightseeing tours to the North's ancient border
city of Kaesong and restrict cross-border traffic by South Koreans.
Meanwhile, South Korean NGOs working to help North Koreans said on Wednesday that
they have been asked by the North to send only a minimum number of people to the
North when they truck aid materials starting next month.
SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to withdraw all staffers from the only joint office in North Korea this weekend in line with the communist nation's plan to close the office, officials said Wednesday.
Marking a new escalation of tension between the two Koreas, North Korea
announced on Monday that it will, starting next week, shut down the Inter-Korean
Exchanges and Cooperation Consultation Office within the joint industrial
complex in Kaesong and reduce the number of South Koreans working at the joint
industrial and tourism estates in Kaesong and Mount Geumgang.
The North said its measures were aimed at punishing Seoul for its failure to
change its hard-line policy toward Pyongyang despite repeated such calls from the
communist neighbor.
"We informed the North yesterday of our plans to bring back on Friday six members
of the office and three others of outsourcing firms across the military
demarcation line into the South and detailed schedules for vacating the office,"
Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry dealing with North Korea
affairs, told reporters.
But the North has yet to respond to the plans, he said.
Six staff from each of the two Koreas have been working at the office since North
Korea ejected all 11 South Korean governmental officials in March, protesting at
Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong's remarks that the Kaesong industrial complex
will not be further expanded without progress in Pyongyang's denuclearization.
Negotiations are under way to decide how many people should withdraw from the
tourism estates of Kaesong and Mount Geumgang, spokesman Kim said, adding that
Seoul on Tuesday provided the North with a list on who would stay or who would
leave, at its request.
Currently 88 small-sized South Korean garment and other manufacturers operate in
the Kaesong complex with more than 36,000 North Korean and 1,500 South Korean
employees.
Inter-Korean relations have chilled since South Korea's conservative President
Lee Myung-bak took office in February and pledged to get tough with the
nuclear-armed communist neighbor.
North Korea has limited the number of South Korean workers who can stay at the
Mount Geumgang resort to 200 since a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a
North Korean soldier after she entered an off-limit zone in early July.
The "initial" retaliatory steps to be taken by the North on Dec. 1 also include
suspending the South Korea-run sightseeing tours to the North's ancient border
city of Kaesong and restrict cross-border traffic by South Koreans.
Meanwhile, South Korean NGOs working to help North Koreans said on Wednesday that
they have been asked by the North to send only a minimum number of people to the
North when they truck aid materials starting next month.
