N. Korea warns S. Korea of final action against Kaesong park

N. Korea warns S. Korea of final action against Kaesong park

 

2013/04/29 10:32 KST

 

SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned Monday that it could take final and decisive action against a suspended inter-Korean industrial complex if South Korea follows through with removing the remaining 50 South Korean workers from the site.

   The warning came after South Korea's unification ministry said Friday that all remaining personnel at the complex in the North's border city of Kaesong will be withdrawn after Pyongyang rejected talks aimed at normalizing the zone.

   The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) said in a article monitored in Seoul that the decision to pull out all workers from the Kaesong Industrial Complex constituted a rash and despicable act.

   "Such measures have raised the risk of complete closure of the complex, and South Korea will never be able to avoid blame if such developments occur," it said.

"North-South relations are at a state of war, yet having understood the plight of the companies, we did not order them to leave or take steps to close down operations," the newspaper claimed. "The only reason why the situation has not deteriorated further is due to the restraint exercised by Pyongyang so far."

Citing provocations by the South Korea press and senior policymakers, the North barred South Korean workers and materials from entering the complex on April 3, and followed this with the pull out of all 53,000 laborers six day later, that effectively halted operations.

   The media outlet said if Kaesong is forced to close, the incumbent administration will be branded as being more confrontational than the previous Lee Myung-bak government. The daily did not mention President Park Geun-hye's name directly.

   The Rodong Sinmun's latest article is a repeat of the statement released by the policy bureau of the National Defense Committee last week that threatened to take serious action if the South did not desist from its provocative course of action.

   The Seoul government, meanwhile, said that with 126 people having returned home on Saturday, only 50 South Korean personnel remained in the Kaesong complex that started production in late 2004.

Those remaining belong to the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee (KIDMAC), Korea Electric Power Corp., Korea Land and Housing Corp. and KT.

   "Talks are underway with the North to permit all personnel to cross over the DMZ at 5 p.m.," an official at the unification ministry said. He said KIDMAC chief Hong Yang-ho will be returning as well.

   If the withdrawal takes place, the last remaining economic link between the two countries will be severed.

   Seoul has persistently said it wants operations at Kaesong to resume, but such a step depends entirely on Pyongyang's actions. Policymakers here have stressed that the North must rescind all its actions that disrupted normal activities at Kaesong.

 

Source: english.yonhapnews.co.kr

 

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