Last South Korean workers 'set to leave Kaesong'

 South Korea is set to pull the last of its workers out of a joint industrial zone in North Korea, as Seoul announced moves to help affected firms.

A total of 125 South Koreans left the Kaesong complex on Saturday, and the remaining 50 are expected to withdraw on Monday, officials say.

The move came after North Korea pulled out its own workers and rejected talks on the industrial park.

Tensions are high following Pyongyang's third nuclear test in February.

Pyongyang has been angered by tightened UN sanctions imposed after its 12 February nuclear test and by joint US-South Korea military drills, which are scheduled to end on Tuesday.

Kaesong Industrial Complex, which was launched in 2003 to boost inter-Korean ties, is a factory park situated just inside North Korea.

It is home to 123 South Korean companies which employ North Korean workers, and provides the North with much-needed hard currency.

Awaiting approval

Earlier this month, North Korea blocked South Korean workers from entering the zone. It withdrew its 53,000 workers from the industrial park a few days later.Although the North has restricted entry to Kaesong Industrial Complex in the past, this would be the first time that all South Korean workers had withdrawn.

The remaining 50 workers are expected to cross the border back into South Korea at 17:00 local time (08:00 GMT), South Korean officials said.

South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyun-seok told reporters that North Korea had not yet approved the passage of the workers across the border.

However the North said earlier it would not hinder those leaving the Kaesong complex.

Some of the workers were reportedly reluctant to leave Kaesong, fearing that company assets would be seized.

Han Jae-kwon, chairman of the Association of Kaesong companies, said: "Those remaining workers are there to take charge of products owned by our customers and raw materials, so we want detailed measures to protect them after the workers have been pulled out."

The South Korean government said it had set up a taskforce to help companies who had been forced to halt operations at Kaesong.

The taskforce would "assess damages suffered by the firms with factories at Kaesong and... devise comprehensive and practical supportive measures," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

The government had discussed a variety of support measures, including the possibility of offering businesses loans from the inter-Korean co-operation fund, the statement added.

Meanwhile, North Korea seems to be gearing up for a major land and air military exercise, South Korean news agency Yonhap said on Sunday, citing a government source.

A US citizen is also due to be tried soon on charges of attempting to overthrow the North Korean government, according to the North's official news agency KCNA.

Pae Jun-ho, who is known in the US as Kenneth Bae, was held last year after entering North Korea as a tourist.

No date for the verdict has been confirmed, and it is not clear what sort of sanction Mr Pae might face, although North Korea's criminal code provides for life imprisonment or the death penalty for similar offences.