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South Korean Workers In North Korean Factory Running Out Of Food
South Korea on Thursday warned of an unspecified “grave measure” if North Korea rejects talks on a jointly run factory park shuttered for nearly a month – setting up the possible end of the last remaining major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
In a televised briefing with reporters, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk refused to describe what Seoul would do if Pyongyang doesn’t respond by a deadline Friday to a demand for formal working-level talks on the industrial complex just over the heavily armed border in the North Korean town of Kaesong. But Seoul’s talk of a “grave measure” may be an attempt to signal it will pull out its remaining workers from the complex.
For weeks, until recently, North Korea issued a steady stream of criticism and threats of war aimed at Seoul and Washington, expressing anger over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that the North calls invasion preparations and U.N. sanctions over its February nuclear test.
Amid the rising animosity, North Korea early this month barred South Koreans from crossing the border and entering the factory. It later suspended operations and withdrew the 53,000 North Korean workers who manned assembly lines there.
The factory, a hold-over from an era that saw the Koreas set up various cooperative projects meant to facilitate better ties, has operated with South Korean know-how and technology and with cheap labor from North Korea since 2004. It has weathered past cycles of hostility between the rivals, including two attacks blamed on North Korea in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans. MOREHERE
