The North Korean factory park that is the last vestige of cooperation with the South moved closer to paralysis yesterday as nearly 100 South Korean workers went home across a border that Pyongyang has closed in the return direction.
South Korean workers who left the Kaesong industrial complex just north of the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone said their companies were running out of raw materials that ordinarily would be trucked in from the South.
The South Korean Unification Ministry said one of the more than 120 companies operating at the complex shut down yesterday, the fourth to do so since North Korea barred people and cargo from entering on Wednesday.
At Kaesong, hundreds of South Korean managers have worked with thousands of North Korean workers to produce a variety of products for the past decade. There was a similar disruption in 2009 — also during US-South Korean military exercises — but that was brief, and manufacturers fear this border shutdown could last longer.
The Unification Ministry said that 92 South Koreans headed home yesterday. One manager interviewed as he left, Han Nam-il, said he saw North Korean security officials “fully armed” before he crossed the border.
Another man, Kim Jin-ho, said his factory had only enough raw materials to last for three or four days, as he spoke from the seat of his truck full of cardboard boxes.
North Korea is not forcing South Koreans to leave, so the companies are running out of raw material rather than managers. Sung Hyun-sang, head of an apparel manufacturer that employs 1,400 North Korean workers, said on Friday that his factory will be “in real trouble” if supplies are not sent to his factory in Kaesong in a week or two.
In a sign of how unconcerned South Koreans based at Kaesong are about their own safety, the Unification Ministry said Seoul yesterday turned away some managers waiting at the border with hopes of getting back to work.
South Korea has drawn anger from the North by discussing the possibility of a potential hostage situation involving the South Koreans still working at the complex.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS