(4th LD) N. Korea lifts border traffic bans on South

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead, UPDATES throughout with new N.K. message completely
normalizing traffic)
By Kim Hyun, Tony Chang
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Thursday it completely normalized
cross-border traffic for South Korean workers and cargo trains, lifting bans it
has imposed since December to protest Seoul's hardline policy.

The announcement was the latest in a series of recent conciliatory gestures from
Pyongyang. Days earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed to "energize"
inter-Korean projects in a meeting with a South Korean business leader.
In a faxed message, North Korea announced 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," Seoul's Unification Ministry said in an emailed statement.
The North sent a more detailed note hours later, saying South Korean workers'
border trips and cargo train service "will be restored to the way they were"
before the Dec. 1 measure.
Protesting the Lee Myung-bak government's conservative stance, North Korea took a
string of retaliatory measures that mainly affected South Korean businesses
operating at a joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong.
It cut off train cargo service, which was reconnected in 2007, more than five
decades after it was severed during the Korean War, to transport materials to the
joint park. The North also drastically reduced the number of times South Koreans
and their cargo trucks could cross the border to three times a day. The number of
South Koreans allowed to stay in Kaesong was cut to 880, and hundred of others
were forced to leave or visit with daily permits.
Such restrictions 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 opened in 2004 as an outcome of the historic first inter-Korean summit
between then President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.

North Korea said the new measure is effective from Friday, but Seoul officials
expected its implementation may take a few days due to "technical issues"
governing border traffic.
South Korean companies operating in the joint industrial park welcomed North
Korea's measure, saying they expect Pyongyang to take more measures to help their
operations go smoothly.
"We had a lot of difficulty trying to run factories with the minimum workforce
allowed to stay," said Yoo Chang-geun, vice chairman of the Kaesong Business
Council that represents South Korean firms at the joint park. "When this measure
comes into effect, we'll have an opportunity to restore buyer confidence."
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 stay, the official said.
The 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 Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of Hyundai Group, last week and released a
Hyundai employee who had been detained there since March for criticizing its
political system.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il also agreed with Hyun to resume joint tourism
ventures and improve cross-border relations "under the historic June 15 joint
declaration and the October 4 declaration," which were produced at the
inter-Korean summits of 2000 and 2007, respectively.
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.
Inter-Korean relations rapidly chilled after Lee came to power in February last
year, taking a tougher stance on North Korea's nuclear program and suspending
massive unconditional aid to the impoverished state.
sam@yna.co.kr
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)