N. Korea allows S. Koreans to visit joint complex

SEOUL, March 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea allowed South Koreans to visit a joint
industrial complex on Monday after normalizing border traffic over the weekend
following the conclusion of a U.S.-South Korean military exercise, Seoul
officials said.

North Korea had severed the only remaining official phone and fax channel with
South Korea and sealed their shared border three times during the March 9-20
joint drill, which it views as a rehearsal for invasion.
The measures were withdrawn on Saturday, a day after the joint drill ended.
The North Korean military in charge of border crossing sent a letter of approval
by the restored inter-Korean fax channel shortly after 8 a.m., officials of the
Unification Ministry said. About 640 South Korean workers and managers are
scheduled to visit the joint industrial complex in North Korea's border town of
Kaesong, and 216 people are to return, they said.
Just an hour's drive from Seoul, 101 South Korean firms operate at the joint
complex, joining South Korean capital and technology with North Korean labor.
About 39,000 North Koreans are employed there, producing clothes, watches,
kitchenware, electronic equipment and other labor-intensive goods. Their combined
output was worth US$250 million last year.
The Kaesong venture 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 disintegrated last
year.
The recent border closures raised concerns about doing business in North Korea.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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