North Korean border bars South Koreans
North Korea blocks South Koreans from crossing its border to work in a jointly run factory park, amid increasing hostility from Pyongyang.
Cargo trucks could be seen turning around at the border control area in Paju, being ordered through the Inter Korea Customs, Immigration and Quarantine zone and back into South Korean territory.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry spokesman, Kim Hyung-suk, said Pyongyang is allowing South Koreans to return home from Kaesong, but that about 480 South Koreans who had planned to travel to the park were being refused entry on Wednesday.
North Korean authorities apparently cited recent political circumstances on the Korean peninsula, but Mr Kim did not elaborate.
“We will further review our stance following consultations with the tenant companies at the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” he said.
“North Korea’s action creates a barrier to the stable operation of the Kaesong industrial complex and we urge North Korea to immediately normalise passage in and out of the Kaesong industrial complex,” he added.
‘State of war’
The move comes after North Korea announced it would restart all its mothballed nuclear facilities and increase production of nuclear weapons material.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said that the crisis over North Korea had gone too far.
“Nuclear threats are not a game,” he said. “Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counter-actions, and fuel fear and instability.”
North Korea has also threatened to stage missile strikes on Seoul and Washington and has said that the armistice ending the 1950s Korean War is void.
The Korean peninsula is technically in a state of war because the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
The two sides do not allow their citizens to travel to the other country without approval, but an exception has previously been made each day for the South Koreans working at Kaesong.
Dozens of South Korean firms run factories in the border town of Kaesong. Using North Korea’s cheap, efficient labour, the Kaesong complex produced US $470m worth of goods last year.
“The livings of over 20,000 North Korean people is connected to the Kaesong industrial district operation, so I think it will be difficult to shut it down,” said Chang Soo-young, a professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology.
The park later resumed normal operations.