The South Korean government has again turned down a request made by South Korean business owners to visit their facilities in the suspended Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea. 

According to an official of the Unification Ministry, on Friday the ministry "deferred" action on the request lodged by 153 business owners involved in the inter-Korean factory complex, adding it informed the applicants of the decision. 

The government decided that it was still too early for them to visit the complex given the lack of visible outcomes on North Korea's denculearization. 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also known to have told Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon during a phone call on Wednesday that easing North Korea sanctions is unlikely without progress on the country's nuclear disarmament. 

It was the sixth time the South Koreans involved in the Gaeseong project unsuccessfully called for the right to travel to the suspended North Korean site, since Seoul decided to shut it down in February of 2016, under the former Park Geun-hye government.