Korea shuts down joint industrial park with N. Korea

A stressful mix of anger and anxiety was the dominant feeling among scores of South Korean businessmen crossing the border Thursday (Feb 11) into North Korea to oversee the death of a decade-long investment.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced on Thursday that it is expelling all South Koreans from the Kaesong Industrial Zone (KIZ) and closing the joint-run complex.

North Korea has accused South Korea of making a “dangerous declaration of war” by suspending operations at an industrial park where the two countries previously co-operated. “Chongryon operates banks and dozens of schools across the country, as well as “pachinko” pinball parlours, trading companies to real estate firms, earning foreign currency for the communist North. Many of them have gone bankrupt in recent years amid North Korea’s troubled economy and weakening support here”.

Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel said Seoul’s move was a “compelling indicator of the seriousness with which they regard the provocative steps” taken by North Korea. The industrial park is a joint project between the two Koreas. The United Nations recently vowed to implement further sanctions on North Korea.

The statement said it was “unpardonable” of Seoul to find fault with Pyongyang’s recent rocket launch and nuclear test, actions it said were “a just measure for self defense and an exercise of its legitimate right”.

Ri Yong-gil, chief of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) general staff was executed earlier this month for forming a political faction and corruption, Yonhap news agency said, citing a source familiar with North Korean affairs.

The pro-North Korean community is estimated to account for about a fifth of the half-million ethnic Korean residents in Japan.

Operations at Kaesong were halted for five months in 2013 amid mounting tensions between the neighbors.

Discussions were continuing at the U.N. Security Council to impose new sanctions, a White House official said.

North Korea, in its statement, also issued crude insults against South Korean President Park Geun-hye, saying she masterminded the shutdown and calling her a “confrontational wicked woman” who lives upon “the groin of her American boss”.

USA experts have estimated that North Korea may have about 10 bombs – but that could grow to between 20 and 100 by 2020.

The proposed sanctions still require Cabinet and Parliament approval.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service declined to comment, and it was not possible to independently verify the report.

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The North also said it had ordered a “complete freeze of all assets”, including raw materials, products and equipment.

He said three of his South Korean employees remained in Kaesong after the North’s deadline. On Jan. 6, the DPRK tested what it claimed was its first H-bomb, the fourth of its nuclear detonations.

Washington, Seoul and others consider the launch a banned test of missile technology.

A North Korean long-range rocket is launched into the air at the Sohae rocket launch site, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo, Feb. 7, 2016.

And I said I don’t know. That news came weeks after the reported execution of 15 senior officials.