N. Korea allows S. Korean workers to visit joint complex after brief delay

SEOUL, March 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korean belatedly approved the visit of South
Korean workers to a joint industrial complex on Thursday, allowing border
crossings after a brief suspension in the morning, a Seoul spokesman said.

The hand-delivered notice came at 10 a.m., an hour after the South Koreans were
scheduled to leave for the joint complex in the North Korean border town of
Kaesong, said Lee Jong-joo, spokesperson for the Unification Ministry.
The North Korean military in charge of border passage did not explain the reasons
for the delay.
A total of 701 South Korean managers and workers were scheduled to visit the
Kaesong complex, while 540 people were to return.
The two Koreas currently exchange the list of visitors and subsequent approval
notice through hand-delivered letters after the North Korean military cut off the
only remaining official phone and fax channel last week, protesting an ongoing
military drill by South Korea and the United States. The North Korean military
said the communication channel will remain severed until the joint drill ends on
Friday.
North Korea sealed the border twice last week, forcing scores of South Korean
factories to cut down production and leaving hundreds of workers stranded there
for days.
The North fully reopened the border later, but uncertainty persisted over border
stability.
Seoul's unification minister ruled out closing the joint Kaesong complex but
warned his government would respond resolutely if the border closure recurs.
"Our government's position is that the Kaesong industrial complex should be
developed in a stable manner," Hyun In-taek said in a meeting with journalists in
Seoul on Wednesday.
If the arbitrary border control "continues even after the military exercise
period that the North had announced (as the reason for the closure), our
government will view it as a very serious situation and take appropriate measures
to deal with it," he said.
The Kaesong zone, just an hour's drive from Seoul, is the only major
reconciliatory project that remains intact from the first inter-Korean summit in
2000. Other projects -- including tours to the North's scenic Mount Kumgang and
historic sites in Kaesong, an ancient Korean capital -- have all been suspended
as political relations degenerated last year.
Ninety-three South Korean firms operate in Kaesong, 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.
The North Korean government received $26.8 million in wages from South Korean
firms last year, according to ministry data. The amount was sizable, given the
North's estimated export volume of $4 billion.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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