S.Koreans Virtual Prisoners at Kaesong Complex N.Korea Warned Kaesong Firms Over Staff Pay N.Korea Suspends Communication via Military Hotline N.Korea Reopens Border N.Korea Threatening S.Korea's Private Sector N.Korea Suffers Withdrawal of Sunshine Policy Is N.Korea Closing Kaesong Industrial Complex?

A senior government official said that day North Korea "must understand that it will also suffer losses if the operation of the industrial park is suspended. We're considering reducing the amount of money we pay North Korea or suspending payment of monthly wages to North Korean staff for the time being by applying the 'no-work, no-pay' principle in proportion to the reduced working hours."

Some 40,000 North Koreans are employed at the joint industrial park in the border city. South Korean businesses pay about US$3 million or $73 per worker to North Korean authorities per month.

Seoul expects Pyongyang to lift the de-facto travel ban on Monday or Tuesday. "To put pressure on the South, the North is repeating its hit-and-run tactics” during the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises which started on Mar. 9 and end March 20, an official said.

If the blockade continues beyond the end of the drill, another government official said Seoul "may consider asking citizens for their safety to refrain from visiting the industrial park or bringing all those staying at Kaesong temporarily back to the South." So far telephone lines to Kaesong remain operational, but if they are cut off as well, the government here could be forced to pull out South Korean businesses.

But Prof. Lee Jo-won of Chung-Ang University said that is unlikely. "It'll be difficult for the North to take the initiative to close the Kaesong industrial park, given its monthly cash revenue of $3-4 million and about 40,000 North Korean workers there, but it won't be easy for the South to pull out from a symbol of the inter-Korean economic cooperation either," he said. "So I don't think either side will make any rash decision."

(englishnews@chosun.com )