Visits to North Korea's Gaeseong Industrial Complex by South Korean corporate officials will be banned on Monday amid heightened inter-Korean tensions over Seoul's resumption of live-fire drills in the Yellow Sea.

An official from the Unification Ministry in Seoul says the ban applies only to those seeking to enter the North, not the South Koreans who wish to return to the South from the complex.

An association of representatives of South Korean firms operating in the complex had been planning to cut the number of visits to the complex from 600 to 300 prior to the government’s announcement of a total ban.

Three-hundred-eleven South Koreans are currently in North Korea including 297 at the Gaeseong complex and 14 at the Mount Geumgang resort.

The ministry says that any change to the ban depends on inter-Korean developments and that the ban could be extended if a crisis situation continues.