South Korea is expected to provide electricity to North Korea's Gaesong industrial complex in early March, for the first time since the division of the Korean Peninsula.

The state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. said Friday that work to lay an 8-kilometer-long power cable linking the industrial park north of the DMZ with a power station in the South was nearly complete.

The power corporation said it will likely begin electricity supply to the 28-thousand-pyeong or 92-thousand-square-meter pilot complex around March 5.

Meanwhile, a source at the industrial complex said electricity and improved communications systems were key to operating the facility.

The Gaesong complex, which aims to combine the South's capital and entrepreneurial expertise with the North's cheap labor, is considered the crowning achievement of the historic June 2000 summit between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Factories in the pilot complex that began operations late last year are currently running at about 30 percent capacity, largely because of electricity shortages. They have also voiced complaints about the lack of communications links with the outside world.

The two Koreas will likely hold a formal ceremony marking the beginning of the South-North power supply once the cross-border cable comes into use.