ROK, DPRK reopen Kaesong complex

SEOUL - Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea reopened the Kaesong industrial complex on Monday morning after it suspended for five months amid political tensions in the peninsular, the Yonhap news agency reported.

More than half of the 123 ROK's companies in the complex are expected to start trial run and workers from the DPRK side have been requested to return to work, Yonhap quoted the Unification Ministry as saying.

A total of 820 ROK's managers and workers are expected to cross the border into Kaesong on Monday, more than 400 of whom will stay overnight to oversee production operations there, the ministry said.

Seoul and Pyongyang last Wednesday agreed to fully reopen the joint factory park in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong after agreeing on several institutional tools.

Meanwhile, Seoul and Pyongyang kicked off the third round of joint management committee negotiations. The joint committee, which will be in charge of running the factory park, will give Seoul an equal say on the zone, which had been managed solely by Pyongyang in the past.

The two sides last week agreed to adopt an electronic system to control the passage of ROK's personnel to and from Kaesong through the radio frequency identification technology. They also agreed to continue to discuss details on the introduction of mobile phones and the Internet in the factory park.