Seoul - A South Korean train headed to North Korea Friday for its last round-trip before all cross-border train service is halted on December 1, the Unification Ministry reported in Seoul.

Tour buses carrying 210 South Korean tourists left for the last day trip to the North Korean border city of Kaesong.

North Korea announced on Monday its would halt cross-border train service, suspend South Korean tours to Kaesong and halve the number of South Koreans working there at an industrial complex.

Pyongyang claims these are just the initial steps to punish Seoul for pursuing a confrontational policy against it.

South Korea has called for a recall of half of the 1,600 workers from the industrial complex by the end of the week as well as closing the inter-Korean Office for Economic Co-operation in Kaesong.

Currently, 33,000 North Korean workers are employed at 88 South Korean factories in Kaesong. The plants are a source of foreign revenue for the impoverished North Korea.

More than 110,000 people have taken the sightseeing tour to Kaesong since its launch in December last year.

The negotiations between both sides are still ongoing, according to the Unification Ministry.

The start of the regular freight train service last December was hailed as a milestone in reconciliation efforts between the two countries that remain officially at war after the
1950-53 Korean War ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

Relationships between the two Koreas have cooled markedly since a conservative government took office in Seoul in February, pledging to link inter-Korean economic cooperation with the North's nuclear disarmament. (dpa)