Whenever the North does
Many of the companies now have to find new jobs for their employees who normally work in Kaesong and build new production lines so they can keep supplying their buyers.It is the latest in an escalating standoff over North Korea's recent rocket launch that Seoul, Washington and their allies view as a banned test of missile China Freestanding Bathtubs technology. Their departure quashed concerns that some might be held hostage, and lowered the chances that the standoff might lead to violence or miscalculations."Such over-the-top rhetoric is typical of the North's propaganda, but the country appeared to be backing up its language with its strong response.The North's reaction was swift.
Paju, South Korea: South Korea has cut off power and water supplies to a factory park in North Korea, officials said on Friday, a day after the North deported all South Korean workers there and ordered a military takeover of the complex that had been the last major symbol of cooperation between the rivals.Combining South Korean initiative, capital and technology with the North's cheap labor, the industrial park has been seen as a test case for reunification between the Koreas. But, generally, the complex has been seen as above the constant squabbling and occasional bloodshed between the rival Koreas, one of the last few bright spots in a relationship more often marked by threats of war. When North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test last month, for instance, she resumed anti-Pyongyang propaganda from loudspeakers along the border, despite what Seoul says was an exchange of cross-border artillery fire the last time she used the speakers.
Park, the South Korean president, has now done something her conservative predecessor resisted, even after two attacks blamed on North Korea killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.But they weren't allowed to bring back any finished products and equipment at their factories because the North announced it will freeze all South Korean assets there."Whenever the North does something provocative, we worry about our loved ones," she said.A group of people braved the rain for hours on the southern side of a cross-border bridge on Thursday anxiously waiting for their family members and co-workers to return to South Korea. Last year, 124 South Korean companies hired 54,000 North Korean workers to produce socks, wristwatches and other goods worth about $500 million. Seoul said its decision on Kaesong was an effort to stop North Korea from using hard currency earned from the park to pay for its nuclear and missile programs.In one of its harshest possible punishment options, South Korea on Thursday began work to suspend operations at the factory park."I was told not to bring anything but personal goods, so I've got nothing but my clothes to take back," a manager at a South Korean apparel company at the complex, who declined to give his name, told
