SEOUL, Dec 1 (Reuters) - North Korea limited entry to South
Korean workers at a joint industrial enclave in the North on
Monday in a border clampdown seen as a pressure tactic designed
to change Seoul's hardline policy toward its destitute
neighbour.
The move comes just a week before North Korea discusses a
disarmament deal it reached with five regional powers that
promises Pyongyang economic and energy aid in exchange for
taking apart its nuclear programme and allowing inspections.
Last week, South Korea cut runs of a highly symbolic
freight train across the border and ended tours to the North
Korean border city of Kaesong ahead of the North's clampdown on
the one remaining land crossing between the states, which have
yet to officially end their 1950-53 war.
The two Koreas reached a deal last week where 1,700 out of
the nearly 4,200 South Koreans permitted to work at the joint
factory park in Kaesong would be allowed to remain.
They are keeping nearly 90 factories running there that
employ about 33,000 North Koreans.
"The South Koreans crossed the border at about 9:00 a.m.
(0000 GMT) without any difficulty," said a South Korean
official stationed on the South's side of the crossing.
The Kaesong factory park, about 70 km (45 miles) northwest
of Seoul, produces items such as watches, shoes and kitchen
goods. It has provided North Korea's leaders with hundreds of
millions of dollars.
Analysts said closing the Kaesong park could deal a further
blow to North Korea's already tainted image as a reliable
business partner, hurting Pyongyang's campaign in recent months
to find investors in Europe and Southeast Asia.
Ties between the two Koreas have chilled since President
Lee Myung-bak took office in February and ended unconditional
aid to the communist state, saying Seoul would tie its largess
to moves the North makes to end its nuclear arms programme.
An angry Pyongyang has lashed out at Lee, calling him a
"traitor" and threatening to reduce the South to ashes.
Jang Cheol-hyeon, a former high-ranking North Korean
official who defected and now works for a think tank affiliated
with the South's spy agency, said Pyongyang's leaders have seen
Kaesong as a cash cow that could also be exploited for
political purposes.
"The Kaesong Industrial Complex was designed as a strategic
tool to threaten the South when necessary, and now it is being
taken into action," Jang said.
The other border crossing between the two Koreas
effectively closed in July after a South Korean tourist at a
mountain resort in the North was gunned down by a North Korean
soldier.
(Additional reporting by Kim Junghyun; Editing by Jonathan
Hopfner and Jerry Norton)
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