Twenty-four South Korean workers at North Korea's Mount Geumgang district returned home Monday morning after having been ordered last week to leave the North.

Employees of Hyundai Asan and other firms returned to the South via the Donghae inter-Korean highway.

On Friday, North Korea completed its seizure and freeze of South Korean real estate in the Geumgang district and demanded that all South Korean workers but 16 leave the resort.

Thirty-six Korean Chinese workers entered the South on Sunday from Geumgang.

The North’s moves are considered to be Pyongyang’s response to South Korea’s refusal to resume the lucrative cross-border tours to the mountain resort.