North Korea blocks Southern workers
NORTH Korea prevented South Korean workers from entering a jointly-run industrial park yesterday, adding to tensions after saying it would restart a mothballed nuclear plant and threatening to attack its southern neighbour.
Workers are not being allowed into the Kaesong complex, the first blockage since 2009, though those already staying in the complex are allowed to leave, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said.
North Korea said on March 30 it might shut the park in response to recent flights over the Korean peninsula by US stealth bombers.
“The entry ban is a serious obstacle to stable operation of the complex,” Mr Kim said.
“In order for there to be more investment into North Korea, just as it wishes, there needs to be predictability and mutual trust.”
Kim Jong-un’s regime generates about $100m in profit annually from the Kaesong complex joint project, and South Korea makes quadruple that amount, according to Yang Moo-jin, a lecturer at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. About 200,000 North Koreans, including workers and their families, depend on the Gaeseong industrial zone for income, Mr Yang said.
Tensions are the highest since at least 2010, after North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon in February and said annual US-South Korea military drills that run until the end of April had brought the region to the brink of war. The regime said on Tuesday it would restart all facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear site shut by a 2007 disarmament deal, including a reactor that generates spent plutonium fuel rods.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday it would be a “serious step” if North Korea violates its obligations by restarting the nuclear facilities. Two US Navy destroyers have been sent to the western Pacific to respond to missile threats, Pentagon spokesman George Little said on Tuesday.
Earlier, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon warned the situation was veering out of control and stressed that “nuclear threats are not a game”. South Korea said it would use military force to secure its citizens if they were threatened or held hostage at Kaesong complex.
More than 120 South Korean companies including apparel company Shinwon, underwear manufacturer Good People and watchmaker Romanson employ more than 53,000 North Korean workers at Kaesong, about 16km north of the demilitarised zone.
Their minimum monthly wage last year rose 5% to $67.
The benchmark Kospi index of stocks fell 0.2%, while the won weakened as much as 0.5%, touching a six-month low, before finishing little changed at 1,117.60 per dollar. The yield on South Korea’s 2.75% bonds due March 2018 was unchanged at 2.56%, according to prices from Korea Exchange Inc.
There are about 860 South Korean workers in the complex and 446 had planned to leave yesterday, according to the Unification Ministry. Bloomberg