ID :
49726
Tue, 03/10/2009 - 04:37
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/49726
The shortlink copeid
LEAD) Scores of S. Koreans unable to return from North's industrial zone
SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- Scores of South Koreans scheduled to return from a joint industrial park in North Korea could not cross the border Monday after the North cut off the last remaining inter-Korean communications channel, a Seoul spokesman said.
About 80 people who were scheduled to return by 5 p.m. from the inter-Korean
complex in the North Korea's border town of Kaesong were not able to make the
trip, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said.
South Koreans are allowed to cross the border only after the North is notified
through a military communications line.
North Korea severed the inter-Korean channel earlier in the day in protest
against an ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drill and said the closure will
continue until the drill ends on March 20. It was the last such communications
line to remain open after Pyongyang closed several others last year in
retaliation to the Lee Myung-bak government's hardline policy.
About 700 people scheduled to visit Kaesong Monday have canceled their trips. It
was not yet known whether 573 South Koreans currently staying at the Kaesong
complex will later be allowed to recross the border.
The ministry spokesman said, "Factories in the Kaesong industrial complex are
operating as usual."
The complex in Kaesong, located several kilometers north of the inter-Korean
border and near the west coast, is a major economic project built after the first
South-North summit in 2000. More than 90 South Korean firms operate in Kaesong,
producing kitchenware, watches and clothes with some 38,200 North Korean
employees.
South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual Key Resolve and Foal
Eagle exercise on Monday, mobilizing more than 25,000 U.S. troops, a
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and tens of thousands of South Korean soldiers.
The North ordered its entire military to be fully combat-ready, saying the joint
military exercise is aimed at launching a "second Korean War."
South and North Korea are technically still at war, having signed only an
armistice at the end of the 1950-1953 armed conflict.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
About 80 people who were scheduled to return by 5 p.m. from the inter-Korean
complex in the North Korea's border town of Kaesong were not able to make the
trip, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said.
South Koreans are allowed to cross the border only after the North is notified
through a military communications line.
North Korea severed the inter-Korean channel earlier in the day in protest
against an ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drill and said the closure will
continue until the drill ends on March 20. It was the last such communications
line to remain open after Pyongyang closed several others last year in
retaliation to the Lee Myung-bak government's hardline policy.
About 700 people scheduled to visit Kaesong Monday have canceled their trips. It
was not yet known whether 573 South Koreans currently staying at the Kaesong
complex will later be allowed to recross the border.
The ministry spokesman said, "Factories in the Kaesong industrial complex are
operating as usual."
The complex in Kaesong, located several kilometers north of the inter-Korean
border and near the west coast, is a major economic project built after the first
South-North summit in 2000. More than 90 South Korean firms operate in Kaesong,
producing kitchenware, watches and clothes with some 38,200 North Korean
employees.
South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual Key Resolve and Foal
Eagle exercise on Monday, mobilizing more than 25,000 U.S. troops, a
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and tens of thousands of South Korean soldiers.
The North ordered its entire military to be fully combat-ready, saying the joint
military exercise is aimed at launching a "second Korean War."
South and North Korea are technically still at war, having signed only an
armistice at the end of the 1950-1953 armed conflict.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
