Last remaining personnel at Kaesong may return home Thursday

The last remaining South Korean personnel at the inter-Korean industrial complex in North Korea may return home on Thursday after settling all necessary accounts on behalf of local companies, a government source said.

"The government plans to announce details on the issue by the end of the day," said the official, who declined to be identified.

There are currently seven South Korean nationals at the Kaesong Industrial Complex who stayed behind to discuss payment of outstanding wages for North Korean workers, tax issues and various service charges. The team is led by Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee (KIDMAC) chairman Hong Yang-ho.

Seoul ordered all South Koreans out on Friday after Pyongyang repeatedly declined to accept talk proposals that could help normalize operations. The North effectively shut down Kaesong after it told all workers not to report to work on April 9.

The exact amount of money being demanded by the North has not been confirmed, but it may exceed US$10 million. This includes $7.2 million that the 123 South Korean companies should have paid the laborers in March. The KIDMAC representatives also are demanding the North take steps to hand over finished goods and production materials still at the complex to their South Korean owners.

Another official said that depending on last minute talks, the seven could return on Friday, although he did not rule out the possibility of them crossing over the demilitarized zone later in the day.

"There is no way to determine when they will return," he said, pointing out the crossing could take place late at night. The 43 South Korean personnel who returned on Monday crossed the demilitarized zone around midnight.

There has been speculation that Seoul will pay the amount requested by the North on behalf of local companies and then collect the money from the businesses later on.

Seoul has said that while there were plans to cut power and the water supply after all South Koreans had left, such a move may not be taken immediately, because it could immediately hurt North Koreans at Kaesong.

If the pull out takes place, it will represent the severing of the last economic link between the two countries that first began in earnest in 1998 with tours to Mt. Keumgang on the communist country's east coast.

Related to the cutting off of ties, a poll conducted by Radio Free Asia (RFA) on North Korean escapees in the South, showed 54 percent wanted the Kaesong complex to be maintained compared to 32 percent who wanted it shut down.

The media outlet, which surveyed 105 defectors, said those that wanted Seoul to hold onto the complex believed the joint venture helped ordinary North Koreans and could lay the foundation for change in the isolationist country. Those opposed said the complex only helped sustain the region by pumping roughly $90 million in hard cash every year into the state coffers. There are some 25,000 North Korean escapees living in the South.

The RFA said that of those surveyed, 81 percent said Pyongyang will never start a war, and about half said they talked on the phone with relatives still inside the North.

Pyongyang, meanwhile, blamed the United States for the current state of affairs at Kaesong.

Uriminzokkiri, North Korea's main Internet-based media or propaganda Web site, accused Washington of being the true culprit which manipulated Seoul to dismantle the industrial park.

The latest attacks target comments made by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who visited Seoul late last month and expressed full support for South Korea's stance to withdraw its citizens from the border town.

The Internet site then claimed that the decision by the U.S. came after it realized its plot to use the complex as a tool to nudge the communist country to open up to the outside world had failed.

The complex is the result of the historic summit between late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and his counterpart Kim Jong-il held in June 2000. The ground breaking ceremony took place in June 2003 with first products coming off the assembly line in late 2004. Since it began operations, total output at the complex reached US$2.05 billion, with production numbers for last year hitting a record $469.5 million.