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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

South Korean workers barred from jointly run factory park

North Korea cites recent political circumstances

A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jet, center, lands on the runway Tuesday during military exercises at the Osan U.S. Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, South Korea. (Associated Press)
Kim Yong-Ho And Sam Kim Associated Press

PAJU, South Korea – North Korea today barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said, a day after Pyongyang announced it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material.

The move to block South Koreans from going to their jobs at the Kaesong industrial complex, the last remaining symbol of detente between the rivals, comes amid increasing hostility from Pyongyang, which has threatened to stage nuclear and missile strikes on Seoul and Washington and has said that the armistice ending the 1950s Korean War is void.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said Pyongyang was allowing South Koreans to return home from Kaesong. Three workers returned this morning; dozens more were scheduled to return later. But Kim said about 480 South Koreans who had planned to travel to the park today were being refused entry.

North Korean authorities cited recent political circumstances on the Korean Peninsula when they delivered their decision to block South Korean workers from entering Kaesong, Kim said without elaborating.

It’s the latest sign of deepening tensions on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea said Tuesday that it will quickly begin “readjusting and restarting” the facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex, including the plutonium reactor and a uranium enrichment plant. Both could produce fuel for nuclear weapons. Analysts saw the statement as Pyongyang’s latest attempt to extract U.S. concessions by raising fears of war. Experts estimate reactivating the reactor could take anywhere from three months to a year.

The rising tide of threats in recent weeks are seen as efforts by the North to force new policies in Seoul, diplomatic talks with Washington and to increase domestic loyalty to young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by portraying him as a powerful military commander.

North Korea is angry about ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drills and new U.N. sanctions over its Feb. 12 nuclear test, its third. The Korean Peninsula technically remains in a state of war because a truce, not a peace treaty, ended the Korean War. The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent to North Korea.

The North’s plutonium reactor began operations in 1986 but was shut down as part of international nuclear disarmament talks in 2007 that have since stalled. Tuesday’s nuclear announcement underscores worries about North Korea’s timetable for building a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the United States.

The North’s rising rhetoric has been met by a display of U.S. military strength, including flights of nuclear-capable bombers and stealth jets at the annual South Korean-U.S. military drills.

The Kaesong industrial park started producing goods in 2004 and has been an unusual point of cooperation in an otherwise hostile relationship between the Koreas. About 120 South Korean firms run factories in the border town of Kaesong, with 53,000 North Koreans working there. Using North Korea’s cheap, efficient labor, the Kaesong complex produced $470 million worth of goods last year.