ID :
33064
Sun, 11/30/2008 - 00:27
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/33064
The shortlink copeid
S. Koreans to complete pullout from Kaesong Sunday
SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Yonhap) -- Nearly 2,500 South Koreans are set to pull out from a joint industrial park in North Korea by the end of the weekend, officials here said Saturday, as ties between the two nations continued to deteriorate.
The massive withdrawal from the complex in the ancient city of Kaesong is to be
completed just one day before Pyongyang is scheduled to toughen border controls,
one of a slew of measures the communist state has said it will take to punish
Seoul's conservative government.
Although some have expressed doubts over whether Pyongyang will follow through
with its latest threat, North Korea is expected to permit less than 1,800 of the
almost 4,000 South Korean workers at the industrial complex to stay on, an
official at Seoul's Unification Ministry said. He declined to give his name due
to the sensitivity of the issue.
"All the officials (that need to return) will exit the facility by Sunday," Kim
Ho-nyoun, spokesman the ministry's spokesman said, adding that more than 850
returned home on Saturday alone.
Pyongyang's recent clampdown on joint tourism and industrial projects are seen by
many as an attempt to pressure South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to soften his
stance towards North Korea and fulfill bilateral accords minted under his liberal
predecessors.
North Korea's decision, announced by its military, will see the suspension of all
cross-border projects except the Kaesong Industrial Complex, currently home to 88
South Korean plants employing some 35,000 North Korean workers.
The zone is seen as the last remaining symbol of reconciliation after tours to
Mount Geumgang were suspended in July following the shooting death of a South
Korean tourist there.
As of Dec. 1, North Korea will ban South Korean tourists from Kaesong and halt
the only cross-border rail service.
Relations between the two Koreas began to sour after the conservative Lee
administration took office in February, vowing to get tougher on Pyongyang.
Breaking with the "sunshine" policy of engagement pushed by his predecessors,
President Lee has made clear on several occasions that his government will not
expand inter-Korean cooperation projects until North Korea abandons all of its
nuclear ambitions.
The two Koreas, which technically remain at war, are both party to the six-nation
aid-for-denuclearization talks, along with China, Japan, Russia and the United
States.
hayney@yna.co.kr
(END)
The massive withdrawal from the complex in the ancient city of Kaesong is to be
completed just one day before Pyongyang is scheduled to toughen border controls,
one of a slew of measures the communist state has said it will take to punish
Seoul's conservative government.
Although some have expressed doubts over whether Pyongyang will follow through
with its latest threat, North Korea is expected to permit less than 1,800 of the
almost 4,000 South Korean workers at the industrial complex to stay on, an
official at Seoul's Unification Ministry said. He declined to give his name due
to the sensitivity of the issue.
"All the officials (that need to return) will exit the facility by Sunday," Kim
Ho-nyoun, spokesman the ministry's spokesman said, adding that more than 850
returned home on Saturday alone.
Pyongyang's recent clampdown on joint tourism and industrial projects are seen by
many as an attempt to pressure South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to soften his
stance towards North Korea and fulfill bilateral accords minted under his liberal
predecessors.
North Korea's decision, announced by its military, will see the suspension of all
cross-border projects except the Kaesong Industrial Complex, currently home to 88
South Korean plants employing some 35,000 North Korean workers.
The zone is seen as the last remaining symbol of reconciliation after tours to
Mount Geumgang were suspended in July following the shooting death of a South
Korean tourist there.
As of Dec. 1, North Korea will ban South Korean tourists from Kaesong and halt
the only cross-border rail service.
Relations between the two Koreas began to sour after the conservative Lee
administration took office in February, vowing to get tougher on Pyongyang.
Breaking with the "sunshine" policy of engagement pushed by his predecessors,
President Lee has made clear on several occasions that his government will not
expand inter-Korean cooperation projects until North Korea abandons all of its
nuclear ambitions.
The two Koreas, which technically remain at war, are both party to the six-nation
aid-for-denuclearization talks, along with China, Japan, Russia and the United
States.
hayney@yna.co.kr
(END)
