N. Korea reopens border for S. Koreans amid tension

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead, UPDATES throughout)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, March 10 (Yonhap) --North Korea reopened its borders to South Koreans
visiting a joint industrial complex in the communist state, a day after it
severed inter-Korean communications, Seoul officials said.

"A North Korean military official notified us that the North will allow passage
through the military demarcation line as of 10 a.m.," Seoul's Unification Ministry
spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said.
Hundreds of South Koreans working at the industrial complex in the North Korean
border town of Kaesong had been virtually stranded after Pyongyang cut off the
last remaining inter-Korean military communications channel on Monday. The North
took the measure to protest an ongoing joint military drill by South Korea and
the United States.
The North will keep the channel closed until the drill ends on March 20, the
spokesman said.
South Koreans can cross the border only after North Korea is notified of their
planned arrival through the military communication channel.
The spokesman said the South Korean government repeatedly tried to call North
Korea through a commercial line owned by KT Corp., a major South Korean
communications operator that runs phone lines in the Kaesong industrial complex.
North Korea responded at 9:10 a.m. through a hand-delivered letter, he said.
Currently, 621 South Koreans are staying at the Kaesong industrial complex and in
other North Korean regions. About 80 of them who were scheduled to return on
Monday were unable to do so.
Some 700 people who planned to visit Kaesong on Monday canceled their trips.
South Korea had strongly demanded the North withdraw the measure.
With North Korea agreeing to reopen the border, business trips to the North's
Mount Kumgang and others regions in the North also resumed, the spokesman said.
"Movements of people and vehicles across the border have now returned to normal,"
the spokesman said. But as long as the military communications channel remains
severed, cross-border visits will have to be notified between the Koreas through
hand-delivered letters every morning, he added.
The complex in Kaesong, 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.
Inter-Korean relations have dipped to the lowest point in a decade since Lee took
office about a year ago, adopting a tougher stance on North Korea's nuclear
program and withdrawing Seoul's unconditional aid to the North.
In recent weeks, North Korea has warned it is taking an "all-out confrontational
posture" against South Korea, threatened border clashes and said that South
Korean passenger planes may not be safe in its airspace.
The aviation warning was seen by some analysts as a move to clear up the North's
airspace before launching what is believed to be a long-range missile.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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