North Korea partially reopens South Korea border - ministry

North Korea yesterday partially reopened its border to let hundreds of stranded South Koreans travel home from a joint industrial estate but traffic the other way remains blocked, officials said.

Seoul's unification ministry said the North's military had authorised border crossings southwards by 453 people and 200 vehicles from the Kaesong estate yesterday, three days after it suspended crossings entirely.

But the ministry said there had been no response to South Korea's requests for northward crossings.

Factory owners say almost half the South Korean businesses at the estate will have to suspend production unless they received raw materials yesterday.

The estate opened in 2005 just north of the heavily fortified border as a symbol of reconciliation between two countries still technically at war.

About 39,000 North Koreans work in 98 South Korean firms, producing items such as watches, clothes, shoes and kitchenware, with raw materials trucked northwards and finished products travelling the other way.

It has often been hostage to political tensions.

The communist state on March 9 switched off military phone and fax lines that were used to authorise border crossings, in protest at an ongoing military exercise between South Korea and the US.