The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced on Thursday that it is expelling all South Koreans from the Kaesong Industrial Zone (KIZ) and closing the joint-run complex.
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Feb 11, 2016- North Korea has vowed to cut two crucial communication hotlines with the South, and says the Kaesong industrial park is now a military zone.
The owners of the 124 South Korean companies operating factories in Kaesong had sent hundreds of empty trucks into the North on Thursday morning to start loading up goods and equipment. Some South Korean workers left the Kaesong industrial complex before the North’s expulsion order, and a handful of others were seen leaving afterward, but South Korean officials didn’t know what would happen to its nationals who had not departed by Pyongyang’s 5:30 p.m. (Seoul time) deadline.
Tensions in East Asia have increased since North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Sunday, one month after Pyongyang drew worldwide condemnation for conducting its fourth nuclear test.
At the Kaesong complex, about 54 kilometres (34 miles) northwest of Seoul, North Korean workers were given a taste of life in the south, including snack foods like Choco Pies and toiletries that were resold as luxury items in the North.
The US Senate has voted unanimously in favour of tougher sanctions against North Korea, after the country’s recent nuclear and rocket tests.
The North has called the shutdown “a declaration of war” and has designated Kaesong as a military zone.
Auto-parts supplier Jaeyoung Solutec Co. and underwear maker Good People Co., two South Korean companies with some manufacturing operations in Kaesong, slid 24% and 17%, respectively.
“Whenever the North does something provocative, we worry about our loved ones”, she said.
The frozen assets include $852 million of South Korean investments into factories and facilities such as roads.
High-ranking officials in the South Korean government appear to believe that, as long as the current regime in North Korea remains in power, the nuclear issue and other problems will never be resolved.
A South Korean vehicle returning home from North Korea’s Kaesong arrives as customs officers talk with a driver at the customs, immigration and quarantine office near the border village of Panmunjom, in Paju, South Korea, Thu…
Thousands of North Koreans are also being pulled out of Kaesong, which was a vital symbol of fragile co-operation between the two countries, who have technically been at war since their creation at the end of the Korean War in 1953. Other South Korean aid programs were halted and sanctions imposed against North Korea in 2010, after Seoul accused Pyongyang of sinking a South Korean warship and killing 46 sailors.
Ri, an army general who took up the top military job in 2013, had been considered as one of Kim’s trusted aides because he frequently accompanied his inspection tours of army units and factories.
News of the find comes hours after North Korea broadcast footage it said showed the launch of a long-range rocket. Some South Korean snacks have become popular among North Korean workers.
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In September 2014, Pyongyang drafted a new operational regulation – rejected by Seoul – that would have allowed the North to detain South Korean businessmen in Kaesong in the event of an unresolved business dispute.
