N. Korea to lift border traffic restrictions

(ATTN: UPDATES with N.K. message, details)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Thursday it will lift cross-border
traffic restrictions imposed since December in protest of Seoul's hardline
policy, officials said, the latest conciliatory gesture toward the South.
The announcement came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed to
"energize" inter-Korean business ventures with South Korea's Hyundai Group
chairwoman, Hyun Jeong-eun.
In a faxed message, North Korea said it will "withdraw the important measure
taken on Dec. 1 with regard to the land passage over the Military Demarcation
Line as of Aug. 21," a high-level government official said in a background
briefing.
Protesting the Lee Myung-bak government's conservative stance, North Korea
reduced the number of South Korean workers allowed to stay at a joint industrial
park in its border town of Kaesong. It also restricted the number of times South
Korean workers could travel to the joint park, opening the border only six times
a day.
Such restrictions have strained business activity at the Kaesong park, where more
than 100 South Korean firms operate with about 40,000 North Korean workers. The
joint park is an outcome of the historic first inter-Korean summit between then
President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.
The new measure "would not solve all problems but to some degree will be helpful
to our businesses operating at the Kaesong park," he said.
North Korea also said it will restore a Red Cross contact channel at the truce
village of Panmunjom for its delegation set to visit Seoul. It did not clarify
whether the restoration would be permanent or effective only during the
delegation's two-day visit, the official said.
A six-member North Korean delegation, led by a top party secretary, will arrive
here Friday to pay tribute to the late President Kim Dae-jung.
The Red Cross channel, mainly used as an official contact line between the two
Koreas, was severed around the same time the border traffic restrictions were
imposed.
Thursday's announcement is the latest conciliatory gesture from North Korea. It
invited the Hyundai chairwoman last week and released a Hyundai employee detained
there since March for criticizing its political system.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the Hyundai chief agreed to the resumption of
a string of joint tourism ventures and lifting restrictions.
The agreement, made public Monday, said the two sides will "energize the
operation of the Kaesong Industrial Zone as the land passage through MDL is put
on a normal basis."
Earlier in the day, South Korea proposed inter-Korean talks to resume reunions of
families separated by the Korean War, which were suspended about two years ago.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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