A private task force called on South and North Korea Wednesday to take steps to relocate electronic and machinery equipment from a suspended inter-Korean factory complex in North Korea.

The move represents a growing impatience by South Korean investors over the shutdown of their factories in the North’s western border city of Gaeseong.

The North pulled all of its 53,000 workers from the complex in April amid tensions with South Korea. Seoul quickly responded by bringing home all of its workers from the complex, which had been billed as the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

“Companies can survive and keep business deals with buyers only if they relocate their equipment (from Gaeseong),” said Kim Hak-gwon, co-chair of the task force that speaks for 46 electronic and machinery makers out of the 123 South Korean companies in Gaeseong.

The task force said its members are pushing to relocate their equipment from Kaesong to either South Korea or unspecified foreign countries.

Still, it remains unclear whether South and North Korea will allow the companies to visit the complex to relocate their equipment from the North.

South Korea is closely monitoring the situation, said a Unification Ministry official handling inter-Korean affairs.

Any trip to the North requires the approval of the South Korean government as well as the North’s consent. The Koreas still technically remain in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The latest request by South Korean investors comes amid no signs of ending the standoff between South and North Korea over the complex that had married South Korean capital and technology with cheap labor from the North. 

Inter-Korean relations remain tense after an agreement to hold their first high-level talks in six years unraveled in June due to a dispute over the ranks of chief delegates that were to attend the meeting. (Yonhap News)