North Korea on Thursday ordered a military takeover of a factory park that had been the last major symbol of cooperation with South Korea, saying Seoul’s earlier suspension of operations at the jointly run facility as punishment for the North’s recent rocket launch was a “dangerous declaration of war.”
North Korea said it was responding to Seoul’s shutdown order by immediately deporting the hundreds of S Koreans who work at the complex just across the world’s most heavily armed border in the city of Kaesong, pulling out the tens of thousands of North Korean employees and freezing all S Korean assets.
The North also said it was shutting down two crucial cross-border communication hotlines.
An immediate worry in Seoul was whether all South Korean workers would be allowed to leave. Some analysts speculated that the North would hold onto some to get all the wages owed N Korean workers.
The moves raised the stakes in a standoff that began with North Korea’s nuclear test last month, followed by a long-range rocket launch on Sunday that outsiders see as a banned test of ballistic missile technology.