Hundreds leave DPRK industrial enclave

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-01 07:39

Hundreds of people from the Republic of Korea (ROK) streamed out of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at the weekend, expelled from a joint industrial enclave by Pyongyang in anger at hardline policy of the conservative leader in the ROK.

The expulsions, part of measures to tighten the border with the ROK, came about a week before regional powers are expected to meet in Beijing to resume talks on ending the DPRK's nuclear program and compensate it with economic and energy aid.

However, a ROK official said as many as 1,700 managers from ROK could return to the industrial zone just north of the heavily armed border from today, when DPRK's new border restrictions take effect.

"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 yesterday. "But the number will probably not get cut sharply."

The scaling back of the industrial park is the latest measure taken by the DPRK since the ROK's President Lee Myung-bak took office in February vowing to get tough with Pyongyang and link aid to progress it makes on ending its nuclear program.

The 1,700 would be the "necessary personnel" needed to keep the factory park operating, out of the nearly 4,200 managers and officials from the ROK who had previously been permitted by the DPRK to enter it.

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.

On Friday, the last train with a sole empty cargo car crossed the border, as a rail service that moved little or no goods but was seen a symbol of reconciliation for the two states was halted after one year.

Tours to the DPRK border city of Kaesong, also started about a year ago, were suspended on Friday.

The Kaesong factory park, about 70 km from Seoul, is the only major economic connection between the two Koreas. A total of 88 ROK firms employ more than 33,000 employees from DPRK there to make goods such as pots, watches and clothes.