South Korea has cut off power and water supplies to a factory park in North Korea, officials said yesterday, a day after the North deported all South Korean workers there and ordered a military takeover of the complex that had been the last major symbol of cooperation between the rivals.
It is the latest in an escalating standoff over North Korea’s recent rocket launch that Seoul, Washington and their allies view as a banned test of missile technology. The North says its actions on the Kaesong complex were a response to Seoul’s earlier decision to suspend operations as punishment for the launch.
On Thursday night, the 280 South Korean workers who had been at the park crossed the border into South Korea, several hours after a deadline set by the North passed.
Photo: AP
Their departure quashed concerns that some might be held hostage and lowered the chances that the standoff might lead to violence or miscalculations.
However, they were not allowed to bring back any finished products and equipment at their factories because the North announced it is to freeze all South Korean assets there.
The North also said it was closing an inter-Korean highway linking to Kaesong and shutting down two cross-border communication hotlines.
“I was told not to bring anything but personal goods, so I’ve got nothing but my clothes to take back,” a manager at a South Korean apparel company at the complex, who declined to give his name, told the Associated Press by telephone before he crossed to the South.
The South Korean Unification Ministry yesterday said in a statement that it had stopped power transmissions to the factory park.
Ministry officials said the suspension subsequently led to a halt of water supplies to Kaesong.
Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said the North Korean action was “very regrettable” and warned the North not to damage South Korean assets in Kaesong.
The South Korean government said it would extend loans, provide low-interest loans, and defer taxes and utility bills for the companies forced out of Kaesong. Many of the companies now have to find new jobs for their employees who normally work in Kaesong and build new production lines so they can keep supplying their buyers.
North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement later on Thursday that the South’s shutdown of Kaesong was a “dangerous declaration of war” and a “declaration of an end to the last lifeline of North-South relations.”
Such over-the-top rhetoric is typical of the North’s propaganda, but the country appeared to be backing up its language with its strong response.
The statement included 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.”
In other developments, Seoul said it is to begin talks with Washington as early as next week on deploying an advanced US missile defense system.
The discussions would focus on placing one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) unit with the US military in South Korea, a South Korean defense official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
THAAD is designed to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles inside or just outside the atmosphere during their final phase of flight.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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