North Korea wrapped up a sudden inspection of an inter-Korean factory park in the North on Tuesday without elaborating on what steps they will take in the future, an official here said.
A day earlier, eight North Korean officials began inspecting the industrial park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong after giving abrupt notification, invoking
concerns Pyongyang may be moving to put the brakes on the long-running symbol of reconciliation.
"The North Korean delegation left the Kaesong industrial base in the afternoon, and the inspection seems to be over," said the Unification Ministry official, who asked for customary anonymity.
The delegation made no comment on the future steps they will take in the operation of the Kaesong industrial park, the official said.
During their two-day stay in Kaesong, the North Korean officials, including a senior director of the National Defense Commission (NDC), inspected four South Korean companies and some facilities such as a substation and roads in Kaesong, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said earlier in the day.
The NDC is the highest seat of power in the North, chaired by leader Kim Jong-il. The visitors included uniformed officers who asked both South Koreans and North Koreans at the park rudimentary questions about their operations, Chun said.
"A wide range of questions was asked, such as items produced, the productivity of North Korean workers, the capacity of the sewage, and how certain facilities are maintained," Chun told reporters.
The inspection was reminiscent of a similar visit in December 2008. Six days later, the communist state temporarily banned South Korean access to it.
More than 110 South Korean firms employ some 42,000 North Korean workers at the Kaesong industrial park, born out of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. The park began operating in 2004.
Pyongyang said on April 8 that it would "entirely reevaluate" the park if relations between the sides do not improve, while ditching Seoul as a partner for joint tours to its eastern mountain resort.
The lucrative tours were suspended in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldierfor allegedly entering a restricted zone.
In anger over Seoul's refusal to resume the cross-border tours, Pyongyang froze South Korean government-run facilities at the resort and expelled personnel from them earlier this month.
The Kaesong park is the last remaining major symbol of reconciliation between the divided countries, which remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.
The latest inspection came as inter-Korean ties began to deteriorate after some months of thawing. Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said Tuesday Pyongyang appears to have reversed its conciliatory line on Seoul, while South Korean officials are investigating whether the March 26 sinking of a naval corvette that killed dozens had anything to do with the North.
North Korea denied its involvement last week, accusing the conservative Seoul government of fabricating the incident to stoke hostilities against Pyongyang.
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