SEOUL – North Korea Wednesday made a high-level inspection of a Seoul-funded joint industrial estate in Kaesong, some two weeks after ordering hundreds of South Koreans to quit the complex, officials said.
Lieutenant-General Kim Yong-Chol, top policymaker of the North's powerful National Defence Commission, and four other military officers met representatives of South Korean firms for 55 minutes, the South's unification ministry said.
Kim "said they were making the tour to inspect the implementation of the December 1 measures," said ministry spokesman Kim Ho-Nyoun.
"Another purpose of the visit is to brief South Korean company executives on the purposes of the December 1 measure."
After months of worsening relations between the two governments, the communist North this month imposed strict curbs on border crossings and ordered hundreds of South Korean staff at the Kaesong estate to go home.
It was unclear whether the latest visit signals more restrictions at Kaesong just north of the heavily fortified border, where some 37,000 North Koreans work for 88 South Korean firms producing light industrial goods.
