By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
A total of one thousand ``made in Kaesong’’ steel pan sets were sold out Thursday, only two days after they hit the shelves at a department store in Seoul.

Priced 19,800 won per set consisting of two steel pans, 480 sets were sold out within two hours after Lotte Department Store in downtown Seoul placed them on the stand Wednesday afternoon. The remaining 520 sets sold out Thursday, three days earlier than the store had predicted.

``Some 20 percent of customers bought more than 10 sets,’’ a spokesman for the department store said. ``A customer even bought 50 sets at once, saying he would distribute them among `silhyangmin,’’’ the official added. The term ``silhyangmin,’’ refers to those who have lost their hometown; those who were born in North Korea but were unable to go back after the nation’s division.

The steel pan sets were the first products transported to the South from the pilot zone of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, which is located just beyond the world’s most heavily fortified border. Produced by Livingart Co., a South Korean kitchenware company, operating its plant in the complex with 255 North Korean employees, the pan sets crossed the border on an eight-ton truck Wednesday.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who just returned from his visit to Kaesong to celebrate the occasion, bought four sets at the store and sent two sets of gifts each to former President Kim Dae-jung and incumbent President Roh Moo-hyun, according to sources.

``While Kim is the one who initiated the Kaesong project, Roh is the one who got the business on track,’’ a Unification Ministry official said, adding the steel pan sets will therefore make good presents to them.

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr