The industrial zone jointly operated by North and South Korea reopened on Monday following its closure after a rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula, a media report said.
More than half of the 123 companies at the Kaesong industrial area said they planned to begin trial operations, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Some 820 South Korean managers and workers would travel to Kaesong to oversee the restarting of operations there on Monday, with around 400 staying overnight, the ministry said.
The deal to reopen the industrial zone included provisions to ease access to the site, 10 kilometres north of the border between the two countries. The Koreas agreed on Tuesday to reopen the industrial zone.
Talks were continuing on the running of Kaesong, including issues such as the rights of South Koreans working there and their use of the internet and mobile phones, the report said.
Operations were halted at Kaesong in April, when first Pyongyang and then Seoul pulled their workers and managers out, each side blaming the other amid rising tensions. The increase in tensions followed North Korea’s third test of a nuclear weapon, which took place in February.
