Koreas normalize border traffic as ties improve

By Kim Hyun

SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Yonhap) -- Inter-Korean border traffic returned to normal on Tuesday, enlivening joint business projects after months of restrictions imposed by Pyongyang to protest Seoul's hardline North Korea policy.

South and North Korea also on Tuesday exchanged names of people seeking relatives
on the other side of the border, following up on a recent agreement to resume
family reunions for the first time in two years.
Border traffic "was normalized to the level prior to December 1st last year" when
the restrictions began, Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said in a
press briefing. "Entry by South Koreans to the North is smoothly underway."
At the Inter-Korean Transit Office, a gateway to North Korea, relieved commuters
chatting with their colleagues and cargo trucks lined up to deliver raw materials
to a South Korean-run park in the North's border town of Kaesong. Businesses
investing at the joint park were upbeat that the restored traffic will
resuscitate sales.
"We get more customer phone calls these days," Ok Sung-seok, chief of apparel
maker Nine Mode Co. that operates with about 200 North Korean workers at the
joint park, said over the telephone.
Ok's company sales have fallen by 30 percent since December as buyers, mostly
South Korean department stores, cut back orders amid concerns over increasingly
unstable business conditions at the joint park, he said. North Korea had banned
border traffic several times in March to protest a South Korea-U.S. military
exercise and detained a South Korean worker at the park for months for
criticizing its regime. The Hyundai worker, Yu Seong-jin, was released in August.
"This traffic normalization, along with the family reunion talks, cleared up
buyers' anxiety. Our sales are returning to normal, to the level of 2008," Ok
said.
North Korea had limited cross-border entry by South Koreans to three passage
times in the morning and their return to three times in the afternoon. Cargo
train services were suspended, and the number of South Koreans allowed to stay at
the joint park was halved to 880.
In a significant shift toward conciliation in August, North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il met with a major South Korean investor, Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun
Jeong-eun, and agreed to lift the restrictions to "energize" the Kaesong park.
Cross-border entry into the North is now possible 12 times a day, and return 11
times. The number of South Koreans allowed to stay at the joint park was also
restored to the 1,600-1,700 level.
The ministry spokeswoman said about 720 South Korean workers and hundreds of
cargo trucks were expected to cross the heavily fortified border during the day.
The joint industrial park houses more than 100 South Korean firms operating with
about 40,000 North Korean workers, producing clothing, kitchenware, electronic
equipment and other labor-intensive goods.
In another fence-mending move, the Koreas exchanged the names of 200 people
looking for relatives from whom they were separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. In
the process of identifying and locating the relatives, the lists will be narrowed
down to half for the reunions set to be held Sept. 26-Oct. 1 at the North's Mount
Kumgang resort on the east coast.
"Those who are old and looking for direct family members, such as their spouse,
parents or siblings, are selected first in the final list," Song Soon-hwa, a Red
Cross official in Seoul, said.
The family reunions, organized by Red Cross offices of both sides, were agreed
upon during last week's inter-Korean talks at the scenic mountain resort.
Reunions were last held in October 2007 and were suspended as political relations
deteriorated.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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