North Korea asks for list of South workers leaving Kaesong

North Korea has asked companies in the Kaesong joint industrial zone for a list of all South Korean personnel who wish to leave the complex in the coming days, the South’s Unification Ministry said on Thursday.

An earlier report by the Yonhap news agency said the North had demanded that all South Korean personnel quit the complex by April 10.

“The report is wrong. The North’s authorities just asked several companies in Kaesong to submit a list of staffers scheduled to return to Seoul by April 10,” a ministry spokeswoman said.

As of Thursday morning, there were 823 South Korean citizens in Kaesong, which lies 10km inside North Korea.

Pyongyang informed Seoul on Wednesday it was stopping the daily movement of South Koreans to Kaesong, the last real surviving point of contact between the two countries.

The North said the South Koreans in the complex could leave when they wanted, but hundreds opted to stay to keep their plants running.