North Korea barred overland border crossings with South Korea yesterday for the second straight day, but allowed four foreigners and a bride-to-be working at a joint industrial park to return to South Korea.
North Korea banned cross-border traffic on Friday, stranding hundreds of people working at the complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
FOREIGNERS
Pyongyang allowed the four foreigners — one Australian and three Chinese — at Kaesong to return to South Korea, said Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea.
A South Korean woman planning to get married was also granted permission to return, ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said.
COMPLEX
Nearly 730 South Koreans were staying in the Kaesong complex as of yesterday and they were all believed to be safe, Lee said.
The Unification Ministry sent a message to North Korea expressing regret over the border situation, and requested that it reopen quickly.
It was unclear why North Korea blocked border crossings.
CLOSED
North Korea also closed the border on Monday after cutting off the only remaining communications hotline with South Korea to protest its ongoing military drills with the US.
The two Koreas used the hot line to coordinate the passage of people and goods through the heavily fortified border.
North Korea has called the military exercises a rehearsal for an invasion.
Seoul and Washington have said the training was purely defensive and they had no intention to attack.
AT WAR
The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950 to 1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Tension on the peninsula intensified in recent weeks amid North Korea’s plan to launch a satellite, which many regional powers believe would be a cover for a test of a long-range missile.
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