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(Continued from page 30)
SKoreans relieved to return to factory park in NKorea
but also worried about months of losses
• SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North and South Koreans got back to work Monday at a jointly run factory park after a five-month shutdown triggered by rising animosity between the rivals, with some companies quickly resuming production and others getting their equipment ready. South Korean business owners who have lost millions of dollars because of the hiatus say they'll need several months to recover.
• "I feel good about the park's resumption, but I also have a heavy heart," said Sung Hyun-sang, president of apparel manufacturer Mansun Corporation, which has lost about 7 billion won ($6.4 million) because of the shutdown at the Kaesong factory complex. "We've suffered too much damage."
• About 800 South Korean managers and tens of thousands of North Korean workers began returning Monday to the factories at the Kaesong park, just north of the Demilitarized Zone.
• The reopening is a sign that relations between the Koreas are warming after a spring that saw threats of nuclear war from Pyongyang.
• But for businessmen at Kaesong, many of whom operate small or mid-sized companies, there's a nagging worry about the future. The companies at Kaesong say they've lost a combined total of about 1 trillion won (about $920 million) over the past five months and will reportedly need up to a year to get their businesses back on track.
• ___
Operation to right shipwrecked Concordia liner off
Tuscany begins after storm delays start
• GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy (AP) -- A complex system of pulleys and counterweights on Monday gently began lifting up the Costa Concordia cruise ship from its side on a Tuscan reef where it capsized in 2012, an anxiously awaited operation of a kind that has never been attempted on such a huge liner.
• Engineer Sergio Girotto said the operation to right the ship began at about 9 a.m. (0700GMT) Monday, three hours late.
• The delay was due to an early morning storm that pushed back the scheduled positioning of a floating command room center close to the wreckage. Once it was in place, engineers using remote controls began guiding a synchronized leverage system of pulleys, counterweights and huge chains looped under the Concordia's carcass to delicately nudge the ship free from its rocky seabed perch just outside Giglio (Continued on page 32)
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