By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
A North Korean military team visited an inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong, North Korea, last week to check personnel and facilities there.
Local experts speculated that the unprecedented survey is aimed at putting pressure on the South, whose civic groups continue to send propaganda fliers containing criticism of the North's dictatorship.
Five military officials looked around the industrial park, Moon Moo-hong, chairman of the Kaesong Indutrial District Management Committee (KIDMAC), said.
``They made the rounds of 11 companies in the complex in the morning and asked about the amount of investment, capital, the number of workers, their salaries and working conditions,'' he said.
The officials, in military uniforms, asked about how long it would take to empty the complex several times during the six-hour inspection, he added.
They did not show an amicable attitude either, saying they were not visiting to give out business cards and they had nothing to talk about.
A government official asking to remain anonymous said the visit can be read as a threat to drive out South Korean companies from the complex.
North Korea has expressed discomfort over leaflets sent by South Korean civic organizations and has called for it to be stopped during working-level military talks.
Civic groups, mainly organized by North Korean defectors, have sent balloons with more than one million propaganda leaflets via the West Sea.
The fliers contain denouncements of the North's military-first politics and autocracy, while promoting free democracy.
Despite repeated warnings from the both South and North governments, organizations keep sending the leaflets, which also mention the rumors of the illness of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
As the North indicated the possible suspension of the industrial park, companies operating there expressed concerns over losses and are suffering from a labor shortage.
The Seoul government plans to build a dormitory in a bid to accommodate North Korean workers but North Korea has refused dialogue with South Korean officials in retaliation to the South's hawkish stance toward the Stalinist state.
Seoul decided to allocate 100 buses to help North Korean workers living far from the complex. Sufficient parking lots and roads have yet to be prepared.
Pyongyang cut all official communication and kicked South Korean officials out in March after President Lee Myung-bak took a tougher stance toward the communist state than his predecessors.
ksy@koreatimes.co.kr
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