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South Korea's unification ministry said Monday that it will seek how to deliver the request of South Korean businessmen for their visit to Kaesong, a border town of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), to the DPRK side.
Unification Ministry spokesman Baek Tae-hyun told a press briefing that the ministry will seek ways to deliver the request from businessmen, who had run factories in the Kaesong Industrial Complex before its closure last year, to the DPRK side.
The inter-Korean factory party, launched in 2004, was unilaterally closed down by South Korea following the DPRK's fourth nuclear test in January 2016.
About 40 South Korean businessmen, which left behind their facilities and factories in Kaesong, last week asked for their visit to the factory zone to confirm whether their factories were illegitimately being operated by the DPRK.
The spokesman said the ministry will consult with relevant ministries on their request for visit to the DPRK town as rapidly as possible.
Even though the ministry approves the businessmen's visit to Kaesong, they would not be allowed to visit the DPRK territory without consent of Pyongyang.
Following last year's nuclear detonations by Pyongyang twice, all of inter-Korean communications lines have been cut off.
The Kaesong industrial zone had housed more than 120 South Korean companies hiring over 54,000 DPRK workers before the shutdown.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
