The total production output of South Korean companies in the inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong, North Korea has exceeded 400 million dollars.

The Ministry of Unification says in past three and a half years, the complex produced 410 million dollars worth of goods in total and exported 84-million dollars worth of goods.

During its first year in January 2005, complex production output reached almost 15 million dollars. In 2006, the output grew to 74 million dollars and, in 2007, it more than doubled to 185 million dollars.

As of August this year, South Korean companies employed 32 thousand North Koreans. Women in their twenties and thirties accounted for 80 percent of the employees.

Currently, 79 South Korean companies are in operation. By year’s end, more than 40 new plants will be added. The number of South Koreans working in the North’s industrial complex is some 12-hundred.