Seoul tells Kaesong workers to wait despite Pyongyang expulsion order

North Korea reacted quickly and sternly Thursday to South Korea’s announcement it will suspend operations at a jointly run factory complex just north of the Demilitarized Zone that is the last major cooperative project between the two countries.

The current standoff flared after North Korea carried out a nuclear test last month, followed by the long-range rocket launch on Sunday that came after Seoul had warned of serious consequences. North Korea called the suspension a “dangerous act of war”, and Thursday morning Pyongyang froze all South Korean assets at the complex and deported all 280 South Korean workers.

“(Army General) Ri Yong-Gil stopped appearing at important functions and I am getting multiple confirmations from diversified North Korean sources that Ri has been executed”, a South Korean assemblyman told NBC News.

The South Korean firms pay hard currency wages, but those are appropriated by the North Korean authorities who then pay the workers a fraction in local currency.

Q: What did North Korea say?

North Korea responded by announcing later on Thursday that it was closing the complex, and would expel all South Koreans from it, Yonhap reported. In turn, South Korean companies get access to cheap labor.

“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 UN Security Council hosted an emergency meeting following reports of the launch and subsequently condemned North Korea for breaking global security resolutions in a statement. This was aimed at putting pressure on Beijing, which has been reluctant to impose tough sanctions on North Korea.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said in a statement issued Thursday the government is to activate a grace period for loan repayment and protect business losses with support from a state-managed emergency management stability fund.

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.

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.

Except for Kaesong, both countries forbid their citizens from communicating with each other across what is the world’s most-fortified border. A worry in Seoul was whether all South Koreans would be allowed to leave.

A group of people braved the rain for hours on the southern side of a cross-border bridge on Thursday anxiously waiting for their family members and co-workers to return to South Korea.

North Korea said it launched the long-range rocket 7 February to put a satellite into space, but it could have been used as cover for a long-range missile launch, according to an analysis on the BBC.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed new sanctions against the North for its violations of worldwide law, targeting Pyongyang’s ability to access the money it needs to develop the weapons.

Japan plans to stop North Korean ships from entering Japanese ports and bar North Koreans from entering Japan.