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South Koreans move out of North's industrial zone
Hundreds of South Koreans streamed out of the communist North at the weekend, expelled from a joint industrial enclave by Pyongyang in anger at the hardline policy of the conservative leader in the South.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:34 December 1, 2008
- A North Korean border guard climbs down a wall as others rest along the banks of a river on the China border.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Seoul: Hundreds of South Koreans streamed out of the communist North at the weekend, expelled from a joint industrial enclave by Pyongyang in anger at the hardline policy of the conservative leader in the South.
The expulsions, part of measures to tighten the border with the South, come about a week before regional powers are expected to meet in Beijing to resume talks on ending the North's nuclear arms programme and compensate it with economic and energy aid.
However, a South Korean official said as many as 1,700 South Korean managers could return to the industrial zone just north of the heavily armed border from today, when North Korea's new border restrictions take effect.
Scaling back
"It appears that for the next week, as the final list of names get confirmed, there will be some flexibility," a Unification Ministry official in Seoul said on Sunday. "But the number will probably not get cut sharply."
The scaling back of the industrial park is the latest measure taken by the North since President Lee Myung-bak took office in the South in February vowing to get tough with Pyongyang and link aid to progress it makes on ending its nuclear programme.
The 1,700 would be the "necessary personnel" needed to keep the factory park operating, out of the nearly 4,200 South Korean managers and officials who had previously been permitted by the North to enter it.
Setback
Some analysts saw the move as dealing a further setback to ties between the two Koreas, which are technically still at war under a truce that suspended the 1950-53 Korean War, after the North refused dialogue until Lee dropped his hardline policy.
It also deals a blow to the communist North's credibility as a business partner because South Korean firms, which have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the factory project, would now be reluctant to bring in more investments.
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