The Korea Electric Power Corporation will complete within this year the connection of power lines to an industrial complex under construction in North Korea's border city of Gaesong.

In the opening ceremony at the company's Gaesong office Thursday, KEPCO President Han Joon-ho said the connection will help meet the energy demand of companies that will start operating in the complex from 2007.

KEPCO in March installed 500 telegraph poles along a 23 kilometer stretch from Munsan, Gyeonggi Province, through the Demilitarized Zone to the complex to produce 15,000 kilowatts of electric power.

But the first-stage main complex spread over 800 acres will begin running in 2007 and will have 100,000 kilowatt capacity via transmission towers.

Han said this project is to provide power for South Korean firms operating in the complex and is separate from Seoul's proposed energy aid to North Korea.

Some 250 politicians and businessmen from the two Koreas attended the opening ceremony.