Seoul: N. Korea used money from joint factories for weapons

The additional Patriot missile battery was deployed amid escalating tensions in the region, with the South closing down a shared inter-Korean factory park that stood as the last symbol of cooperation between the two nations.

The current standoff between the two Koreas flared after North Korea carried out a nuclear test last month, its fourth, followed by a long-range rocket launch on Sunday. The measures will blacklist anyone who is involved in, facilitates, or contributes to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Reports of the latest upgrade come one week after North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket carrying a satellite into space.

“This deployment is part of an emergency deployment readiness exercise conducted in response to recent North Korean provocations”, the US Forces Korea said in a press statement, referring to the temporary roll-out of a Patriot missile battery, which was flown from Fort Bliss, Texas this week.

SEOUL-At the dawn of the millennium in Pyongyang, the leaders of North and South Korea announced a bold agreement for achieving peace and reunification through economic and cultural exchange.

And for the first time, it establishes a framework for sanctions in response to North Korean cyber threats, according to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker.

Chinese foreign minister says things must get “back on the negotiation track” and reiterates the need for Beijing and Seoul to “strengthen their strategic partnership” China’s foreign minister stressed the importance of “considering the interests and concerns of other countries” and “responding prudently” while talking to his South Korean counterpart on the adoption of security-related measures, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on February 11.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se arrive for a meeting in Munich, Germany, prior to the start of the Munich Security Conference, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016.

Pyongyang said it was immediately deporting the hundreds of South Koreans who work at the complex just across the world’s most heavily armed border in the city of Kaesong, pulling out the tens of thousands of North Korean employees and freezing all South Korean assets.

The four countries are crucial in adopting a resolution for sanctions as they are permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council along with France. While the South Korean companies pay the North in US dollars, their North Korean employees receive wages in North Korean won based on an exchange rate dictated by the North’s government.

Seoul and Washington want to deploy the system at an early date and the upcoming talks will discuss where and exactly when the deployment can be made, a South Korean defense official said, requesting anonymity because of department rules.

The Defense Department sent Congress its 2015 report on North Korea’s military power today, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters.

Kaesong’s North Korean workers were given a taste of life in the South, working for the 124 mostly small- and medium-sized manufacturers that operated there, about 54 km (34 miles) northwest of Seoul.