N. Korea fully reopens border for S. Koreans visiting joint

industrial complex
(ATTN: UPDATES with detail)
SEOUL, March 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea lifted a days-long ban on border
crossings Tuesday, normalizing visits by South Korean workers and cargo trucks to
a joint industrial complex.

The North Korean military partially reopened the border a day earlier, allowing
some South Korean workers to return home from the industrial zone in North
Korea's border town of Kaesong. Crossing the other way remained banned.
"The North Korean side sent us a letter of approval this morning," Unification
Ministry spokesperson Lee Jong-joo said.
The letter, delivered by hand to the South Korean management office in Kaesong,
did not explain the reason for the North's reversal, Lee said.
North Korea sealed and opened the border, and then resealed it last week as a
U.S.-South Korean military exercise got underway in and around South Korea.
Hundreds of South Koreans scheduled to return from the Kaesong complex were
forced to stay over the weekend. Shipments of raw materials were also suspended,
forcing many factories to considerably cut down their production and North Korean
workers to take leave.
The ministry spokesperson said the North approved crossings for all of the 547
South Koreans traveling to the Kaesong complex on Tuesday, except for one person
who was missing necessary documents.
"Such a case happens routinely," the spokesperson said.
A total of 307 people were also allowed to leave the Kaesong complex.
Ninety-three South Korean firms operate in the Kaesong industrial complex, just
an hour's drive from Seoul, employing about 39,000 North Koreans who produce
clothes, watches, kitchenware, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive
goods. Their combined output was US$250 million last year.
As an outcome of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, the Kaesong complex is
the only major reconciliatory project that is intact. Other projects -- tours to
the North's scenic Mount Kumgang and historic sites in Kaesong, Korea's ancient
capital -- were all suspended last year.
Analysts believe North Korea protested the U.S.-South Korean military exercise,
as well as what it calls South Korea's "confrontational" policy, by sealing off
traffic to the joint complex.
North Korea cut off the last remaining official phone and fax channel with South
Korea last week, denouncing the March 9-20 joint exercise as a rehearsal for a
"second Korean War."
The North has also warned it can no longer guarantee the safety of South Korean
passenger jets in its airspace while the annual joint exercise is underway.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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