A group of North Korean officials inspected a joint industrial park with South
Korea in the communist state earlier this week, a Seoul official said Tuesday, raising concerns that Pyongyang may be moving to restrict border access to the area.
The inspection was reminiscent of a similar visit in December 2008. Six days later, the communist state banned South Korean access to the park amid deteriorating inter-Korean ties.
The eight officials, including a policy director of the National Defense Commission, the highest seat of power, visited the complex in the border
town of Kaesong on Monday, the South Korean Unification Ministry official
said, asking not to be named citing policy.
The factory 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.
After ditching Seoul as a partner for joint tours to its eastern mountain resort, Pyongyang said on April 8 that it would "entirely reevaluate" the park if relations between the sides do not improve.
"The North Koreans took a tour of South Korean companies and facilities in the complex, saying it was a visit aimed at understanding its operations," the South Korean official said.
The official said the North also renewed its criticism of anti-Pyongyang leaflets floated by South Korean activists when its officials met with South Korean officials in Kaesong.
More than 110 South Korean firms employ some 42,000 North Korean workers in the Kaesong industrial park, born out of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. The park began operating in 2004.
The two countries held a series of meetings earlier this year to explore ways to improve the operations in the park, but failed to produce any agreement. The North mainly demanded the South raise wages for its workers, while Seoul said profitability should increase before pay raises can be negotiated.
Earlier this month, North Korea expelled personnel from South Korean government-run facilities from the Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast,
the latest measure aimed at pressuring Seoul to resume the tours that
had earned Pyongyang millions of U.S. dollars.
The tours were suspended in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier for allegedly entering a restricted zone.
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