N. Korea vows to deport all S. Koreans from factory park

“Now we can say that all strings between the Koreas have been cut and that there are no more buffers”, said Ko Yoo-Hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.

The project that combined cheap North Korean labor with the capital and technology of affluent South Korea has always been viewed both as a test of the potential for reunification of a peninsula divided by the 1950-53 Korean War and a symbol of intractable tension.

“We’ve chose to halt the operation of the Kaesong complex to prevent South Korean money from being funneled into the North’s nuke and missile developments and to protect our companies”.

A South Korea Army soldier stands guard at the customs, immigration and quarantine office near the border village of Panmunjom, in Paju, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016.

Meanwhile, a mood of pain, anger and anxiety hung over scores of South Korean businessmen crossing the border Thursday into North Korea to save what they could of a decade-long investment.

South Korean firms have that they will come up with a set of measures to support its firms operating at Kaesong to help minimise any fallout from the shutdown of what is the last cooperation point between the two Koreas.

Ri, who was chief of the Korean People’s Army General Staff, was executed this month for corruption and factional conspiracy, Yonhap and other South Korean media reported.

Defending what it called an “unavoidable” decision to close the jointly run park, Seoul said North Korea had been using the hundreds of millions of dollars in hard-currency that it earned from Kaesong to fund its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., an affiliate of the Hyundai conglomerate whose tour-operation arm brought visitors to North Korea during periods of friendlier inter-Korean relations, tumbled 20%.

North Korea has vowed to cut two key communication hotlines with the South, amid rising tensions after Pyongyang’s recent rocket and nuclear tests. Some South Korean snacks have become popular among North Korean workers.

The dictator has removed a number of senior officials in recent months for “crimes” such as treason and watching South Korean soap operas.

World leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and other nations have also spoken out condemning the launch.

“We will make the utmost efforts to make sure that all our nationals return home safely”, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said in a statement.

The Kaesong complex, located inside North Korea about 54 kilometers northwest of Seoul, was meant to promote inter-Korean understanding and give North Korean workers 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 measures, which require Cabinet and parliamentary action, will include expanded restrictions on travel between the countries and a complete ban on visits by North Korean ships to Japanese ports.

An immediate worry in Seoul was whether all South Korean workers would be allowed to leave; some analysts speculated that Pyongyang would hold onto some to get all the wages owed North Korean workers.