Seoul: North Korea used money from joint factories for weapons

North Korea launched a rocket on February 7, carrying what it said was an Earth observation satellite into space. But it also reflects the brutality of the Korean War, which left millions of Koreans dead and most of North Korea’s cities and industrial base in ruins.

Washington, Seoul and others viewed the launch as a “prohibited test of missile technology” and are pushing for the country to be hit with strong sanctions. The government cited “multiple channels” as its sources for these claims but did not divulge how it had arrived at the percentage.

North Korea has reacted angrily to new sanctions announced by Japan over its recent rocket launch and said in response that it will halt an investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens it kidnapped decades ago.

The report pointed out, however, that Pyongyang has not yet test launched a KN-08, meaning that North Korean scientists will not have had an opportunity to correct any design or manufacturing defects.

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, is apparently undaunted by these technological hurdles, with state media reporting on Monday that he met with scientists working on his rocket programme and praised them for striking a “telling blow” to the nation’s enemies. When Seoul responded by closing down an industrial park that is the last symbol of cooperation between the two rivals, Pyongyang lashed back, expelling all South Koreans from the site just north of the Demilitarized Zone and putting it under military control.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned last week that North Korea has taken steps toward its KN-08 road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile system and that Pyongyang was committed to developing a long-range, nuclear-armed missile that is capable of posing a “direct threat” to the United States.

It is the first formal acknowledgement by the South that the 55,000 North Korean workers at the Kaesong complex saw little of the $160 they were paid on average a month. The project, which began during an era of relatively good relations between the Koreas, combined cheap North Korean labor with the capital and technology of wealthy South Korea.

Hong’s remarks came under intense scrutiny amid concerns that North Korea might have violated United Nations resolutions banning the transfer of bulk cash.

China’s foreign ministry has urged the U.S. and North Korea to sit down with each other face-to-face and resolve their problems, as tension continues to climb on the Korean peninsula after the North’s latest rocket test.