South Koreans in Pyongyang will return home due to rising tension from an imminent North Korean rocket launch.

An official from the Unification Ministry said that all but one of the 82 South Koreans staying in Pyongyang for inter-Korean cooperation and humanitarian projects were flown out of the country to China’s Beijing and Shenyang.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government will minimize the number of resident workers in the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex and the Mount Geumgang resort.

As a result, the number of South Korean workers in Gaeseong will decrease to less than 700 from the current 900.

On Saturday, the ministry said 161 people made their way to the North via the Gyeongui Highway. Some 500 are expected to return in the afternoon.

Earlier, the government urged civic groups to refrain from making nonessential visit to North Korea. It asked the South Korean companies in the Gaeseong industrial complex to scale down their resident staff to the minimum level necessary.