South to shut Inter-Korean factory park

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL

A factory park inside North Korea jointly run by both Koreas is to shut down for the first time in nearly three years, after South Korea announced plans to withdraw its workers from the plant Wednesday in response to what it described as recent provocations by its reclusive neighbor.

Sunday's long-range rocket launch in the North followed the authoritarian state's claimed hydrogen bomb test last month -- all part of a nuclear weapon development program that is barred by the United Nations.

While the international body is yet to unveil concrete steps to rein in Pyongyang, Seoul officials have been holding talks with counterparts from the United States and Japan to discuss how they can punish the North even without the support of key U.N. Security Council players China and Russia.

South Korea's decision to withdraw its citizens from the Kaesong Industrial Complex is a major unilateral step as the complex is seen as a significant source of income for the North -- over 54,000 North Koreans are employed by 124 firms from the South at the facility.

The complex just north of the inter-Korean border began operations in 2004 during a period of relatively strong ties between the two sides, who never signed a peace treaty at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

"The operation of the complex should not be used for North Korea's development of weapons of mass destruction at a time when the international community is pushing for tougher sanctions against the North," a South Korean Unification Ministry official was quoted as saying by local news agency Yonhap on Wednesday.

"Whether the park can be reopened will entirely hinge on North Korea."

Pyongyang was behind the withdrawal of its own workers from Kaesong in 2013 amid heightened tensions following the North's nuclear test that year.

After four months or so, the Koreas managed to reconcile at least some of their differences and vowed to ensure that there would not be a repeat of the suspension, which offered some consolation to the businesses based at the facility.

Seoul has said it will support those set to be pulled out over the next few days -- South Korean citizens cannot legally enter the North without permission, and vice versa.

In order to restart operations this time, the South has demanded that North Korea first "dispel the international community's concerns about its nuclear and missile developments, and provide a favorable atmosphere for our firms to normally operate factories”.

Elsewhere Wednesday, Japan also tightened sanctions against the North in response to the recent provocations.

Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that the new measures would include banning the re-entry from the North of Japan-based foreign engineers who are involved in nuclear and missile development, and also banning ships from entering Japan that have visited ports in the North.

The two countries have had a particularly tetchy relationship since North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.