Two Koreas Normalize Border Traffic

Inter-Korean border traffic returned to normal Tuesday as North Korea ended its restrictions on South Korean workers and cargo trucks to protest Seoul's hard-line North Korea policy.

At the Inter-Korean Transit Office, a gateway to North Korea, 24 South Koreans and 21 cargo trucks crossed the border at 8:30 a.m., the first passage time of the day, Yonhap News Agency reported quoting officials. They were heading to a South Korean-run industrial park in the North's border town of Gaeseong to oversee North Korean employees there and deliver raw materials.

Under the restrictions imposed in December, South Koreans' entry into North Korea was limited to three times in the morning and their return to three times in the afternoon.

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 from 880.

In a major shift toward conciliation in August, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met with Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun and agreed to lift the border traffic restrictions to "energize" the Gaeseong park.

Meanwhile, South and North Korea are expected to exchange names of people seeking relatives on the other side of the border in a follow-up to a recent agreement to resume family reunions for the first time in two years.

The two Koreas will exchange 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 Mt. Geumgang resort on the east coast.