South Korean workers on Thursday began shutting down a jointly run industrial park in North Korea, a move that will end, at least temporarily, the Koreas’ last major cooperation project as punishment over Pyongyang’s recent rocket launch.
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The legislation comes after Pyongyang’s recent launch of a satellite and technical advances that USA intelligence agencies said the reclusive Asian nation is making in its nuclear weapons program.
In response to the launch, South Korea suspended its operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, cutting off a huge source of revenue for North Korea.
Japan also unveiled fresh unilateral sanctions on Wednesday, including prohibiting North Korean ships from entering Japanese ports and a total entry ban on North Korean nationals into Japan.
“Well, four nuclear tests, three Kims, two violations of United Nations Security Council Resolutions and one attempt by North Korea to transfer nuclear technology to Syria later – it is clearly time for the United States to start taking the North Korea challenge seriously”, Menendez added. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., targets North Korea’s ability to finance the development of miniaturized nuclear warheads and the long-range missiles required to deliver them.
The latest North Korea rocket was based on engines taken from its massive stockpile of mid-range missiles based on Soviet-era technology and electrical parts too rudimentary to be targeted by a global missile control regime, experts said. The government had previously leaked the details to South Korean media.
Yoon Sang-eun, 62, a South Korean driver for a firm at the factory park, said that if Kaesong “stops operating, companies like us nearly have to close off business”.
The complex, which combines South Korean capital and cheap North Korean labor, is considered the last-remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation, but has always been accused by conservatives of being used to fund the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says North Korea’s “belligerence” can’t be ignored.
South Korea’s government and companies invested more than 1 trillion won ($852 million) to pave roads and erect buildings in the park zone, which lies in a guarded, gated complex on the outskirts of Kaesong, North Korea’s third-largest city.
Cruz also proposed fully enforcing US laws, rebuilding the Navy, and deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) unit to more effectively protect USA troops and defend South Korea as ways to respond to the North Korean aggression.
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The new sanctions-and the damage they could inflict on Chinese companies-could exacerbate U.S.-China tensions, which already have been strained by territorial disputes in the South China Sea and other regional security issues.
