Last Thursday, 46 South Korean companies that used to produce machinery and electronics parts in the North Korean border town of Gaeseong warned that they would be forced to make a grave decision unless they were allowed to resume operations by July 3.

The companies did not elaborate on what action they would take after the deadline. By a grave decision, however, they apparently meant closing their shops in the Gaeseong industrial complex permanently.

Shortly after North Korea banned South Korean staff from crossing the border into the complex on April 3, citing the escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula as a reason, the companies said their production facilities would be rendered inoperable if they remained idle for about three months. For normal operations, they said, the production facilities needed maintenance every two weeks to one month.

Other companies, most of them apparel makers, are faring little better than the parts producers. A representative of an apparel maker was quoted as saying that it was a matter of time until many of them went bankrupt, with their turnover standing at zero for a quarter of the year. Moreover, not many buyers will be patient enough to wait any longer if deliveries do not resume anytime soon.

On Saturday, North Korea said it would impose no restriction if any of the 123 companies with production facilities in the complex were to send its staff across the border, adding that normal operations could resume anytime. But what if the North should impose an entry ban on South Korean staff and withdraw North Korean workers from the industrial complex again, citing one reason or another?

Such distrust is behind the South Korean decision not to allow company officials to visit the industrial complex until after a new modus operandi is agreed upon. Against this backdrop, South Korea renewed its proposal on Friday to hold working-level official talks with the North only to hear that no inter-Korean dialogue would resume unless the South dropped its preconditions.

In New York on Friday, Sin Son-ho, ambassador to the United Nations, said North Korea was ready to start all types of dialogue once no strings are attached. He was referring to the proposed high-powered talks on the fate of the industrial complex as well as other issues, which failed to take place as the two sides failed to agree on who would lead their delegations.

If North Korea refuses to commit itself to not closing the border to South Korean staff again, so be it. It will have to do so at the expense of 53,000 North Koreans who have been forced out of work since they were withdrawn from the industrial complex on April 9. It will not be easy for the cash-strapped North to come by an alternative source of hard currency.