SEOUL, April 18 (Yonhap) -- Eight more South Korean workers left the joint inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong on Thursday after all operations came to a halt following the North's move to pull out its laborers earlier in the month, the unification ministry said.

   The return of the workers pushed down the total number of South Koreans at the Kaesong Industrial Complex to 197, according to the ministry that handles inter-Korean affairs.

  


It said six more South Koreans are scheduled to return home on Friday.
Amid escalating inter-Korean tensions, the North started to ban South Korean workers' and vehicles' entry into the joint industrial park on April 3, only allowing them to leave the zone.

   Operations at the park came to a complete halt last week as the communist country ordered its 53,000 workers employed by South Korean firms not to report for work.

   For the past two weeks, South Korean workers in the park have continued to leave as they have been running low on food and other daily necessities following the entry ban that also affected the supply of goods and materials into the industrial park.

   Before the April 3rd measure, more than 800 South Korean workers were staying in the park to manage the 123 South Korean firms operating in the zone. The industrial complex, which went into operation in 2004, combines South Korea's capital and technology with cheap North Korean labor.

   The minimum number of people needed for the maintenance of the suspended factories may continue to stay there, but the rest of them will return to the South, a ministry official said.

   "The government will fully support the measures to help the daily lives of South Korean workers staying there," he said.

   On Wednesday, South Korean businessmen representing the South Korean firms operating in the Kaesong park requested the North's approval to visit the zone to deliver food and check their facilities, but the North refused.

   Blaming the North's Wednesday decision, the ministry official said, "It's an unfair decision," calling the North to allow the special visit by the South Korean investors in the Kaesong zone.

   Amid the continued disruption at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, seen as the last symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation, Seoul offered to hold talks last Thursday, but the North refused the suggestion three days later.

   pbr@yna.co.kr
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