SEOUL - More than 700 South Koreans were blocked from travelling to a joint industrial complex in North Korea on Monday after Pyongyang cut its last communication channels with Seoul, officials said. The North said it was switching off military phone lines to the South in protest at a joint US-South Korean military exercise which started Monday.It ordered its 1.2-million-member military to be fully combat-ready, saying the exercise was aimed at launching a "second Korean War." "As an immediate measure we will enforce a more strict military control and cut off the north-south military communications" during the March 9-20 drill, a military spokesman for the North said. "It is nonsensical to maintain a normal communications channel at a time when the South Korean puppets are getting frantic with the above-said war exercises, levelling guns at fellow countrymen in league with foreign forces."
| Former Spook points out that most of this may be sabre-rattling, but that the Nork main military exercises peak in late winter, so we shouldn't assume that the Norks can't possibly pull some stupid stunt. |
Seoul's unification ministry said 726 people were unable to travel to the Kaesong complex just north of the border. "Our government regrets" the border measure, said ministry spokesman Kim Ho-Nyoun, urging the North to respect inter-Korean accords and stop raising tensions. "Our government urges North Korea to immediately retract its measure and guarantee smooth passage and communications," Kim said.
The unification ministry said the 726 people include those working in the complex as well as civilian groups trying to visit Kaesong for other purposes. It said truck traffic was also halted.
There are now 573 South Koreans staying in Kaesong, and 242 of them were supposed to cross back into South Korea later Monday. The ministry said it was not known yet whether they would be allowed to return as scheduled. "The most important matter now is their safety. The government is taking various steps for their safety," spokesman Kim said.
The Seoul-financed Kaesong estate was opened in 2005 as a symbol of reconciliation, with the North providing cheap labour and Seoul supplying the investment and know-how. At the end of February about 39,000 North Koreans worked at 98 South Korean firms, producing items such as watches, clothes, shoes and kitchenware. The firms truck raw materials over the border to the North, with finished products going the other way for sale in South Korea.