US Senate votes to impose tougher sanctions against North Korea

South Koreans crossing the border in the other direction said none of the 53,000 North Korean workers employed in Kaesong had come to work on Thursday.

Late Thursday, North Korea’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) announced that the government had ordered all South Korean citizens to leave Kaesong immediately, and that all materials left in the complex would be seized. The ship, in peak years, was believed to have transported goods and cash worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the North. Trade between Japan and North Korea, which amounted to more than $30 billion in 2003, has since dropped to virtually nothing since 2010.

“We assess that North Korea has followed through on its announcement by expanding its Yongbyon enrichment facility and restarting the plutonium production reactor”, Clapper said in prepared testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

North Korea has previously cut off cross-border communication channels in times of tension with South Korea, but they were later restored after animosities eased.

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.

North Korea had in retaliation frozen all South Korea assets at the factories, including finished products that expelled South Koreans were not allowed to take home.

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%. In a statement, the association of South Korean companies at Kaesong denounced Seoul’s decision as “entirely incomprehensible and unjust”.

The House of Representatives passed a similar bill in January.

Seoul might have been criticized by the global community if it continued to provide North Korea with foreign currency revenue through operation of the industrial complex.

But rather than helping to “pave the way to peace”, it appeared funds earned by Pyongyang through the site had been used “to upgrade its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles”, the statement said.

An Ohio man charged with stalking Gwyneth Paltrow says he didn’t realize the dozens of messages he sent to the actress were causing her fear.

Kim Soo-Hee, a nurse working at a medical clinic in the complex, said some of the North Koreans seemed to have been aware a shutdown was possible, and had been asking her for several days if Kaesong might close.

The statement by the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea significantly raises the stakes in a standoff that began with North Korea’s nuclear test last month and rocket launch on Sunday.

Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said Wednesday that South Korea can not stop North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs with its existing methods of response.

Japan will also freeze the assets of more groups and individuals that are connected to North Korea.

Suga said the sanctions would be approved by the Cabinet later, and also would require legislative changes in parliament. North Korea’s missile launch is clearly a provocation, but… U.S.-based experts have estimated that North Korea may have about 10 bombs, but that could grow to between 20 and 100 by 2020.

At the same hearing, Sen.

North Korean state television aired footage on Wednesday showing hardened generals of the Korean People’s Army weeping like puppies next to an empty jar of treats.

Then on February 7, Pyongyang said it had successfully launched an Earth satellite into orbit via the long-range Kwangmyongsong carrier rocket.

Two days later, South Korea released the first images of debris retrieved from the sea southwest of Jeju Island shortly after the rocket launch.

“But I am trusting the government’s words that it will ensure the workers’ safety”, Yoon said.

Other charges Ri faced before his execution were abusing his power and forming a clique, the official said.

CNN’s Paula Hancocks and K.J. Kwon reported from Seoul.