The Kaesong complex has been subject to partial closures and temporary work stoppages during times of inter-Korean tensions.
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According to the Korea Development Institute, the number of North Korean workers in China increased from 79,600 in 2012 to 94,200 previous year.
A visitor looks at a map of the Korean peninsula at the exhibition hall of the unification observatory in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016.
He said North Korea was suspected of spending funds from the complex on advancing its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles programmes.
Washington and Seoul have said in separate statements that consultations are expected to be underway regarding THAAD deployment in South Korea, reports that have drawn strong opposition from China as well as Russian Federation.
There was no immediate response in North Korean state media to the South Korean decision.
Japan eased some sanctions on North Korea in July 2014 in return for Pyongyang reopening an investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted decades ago by North Korean agents to help train spies, although little progress has been seen since.
The park is the last major cooperation project between the rivals.
In addition to the business benefits, the park also allowed people from both Koreas to interact with each other and glimpse into lives on the other side of the border.
South Korea’s government and companies invested more than 1 trillion won ($852 million) to pave roads and erect buildings in the zone, which lies in a guarded, gated complex on the outskirts of Kaesong, North Korea’s third-largest city.
South Korea and the United States have also been calling for stricter sanctions to be placed on North Korea after it carried out an unsanctioned nuclear bomb in the beginning of January. The launch, which came about a month after the country’s fourth nuclear test, was quickly condemned by world leaders as a potential threat to regional and global security. That assessment is based on Pyongyang’s open efforts to manufacture nuclear-tipped missiles capable of striking the US mainland and that the technology used to launch a rocket carrying a satellite into space can be applied to fire a long-range missile.
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Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said for too long North Korea has been dismissed as a unusual country run by irrational leaders.
