S. Koreans still at joint factory after deadline

The future of Seoul-Pyongyang ties looked increasingly bleak Friday, as South Korean officials were left to guess what will become of a shared industrial facility situated just inside North Korea – with 124 businesses from the South facing heavy losses after being abruptly kicked out of the reclusive state.

In a move repeated seemingly every year on the Korean Peninsula, North and South Korea are launching angry tit-for-tat moves against one another, while trading blame for who actually started the latest round of escalating tensions.

Seoul suspended operations at the complex this week, after Pyongyang’s rocket launch last weekend.

The Bank of Korea said North Korea’s combined imports and exports that year were about $9.9 billion, including $2.4 billion in trade with the South, which the Unification Ministry says was generated almost entirely from the activities at Kaesong.

Recent developments suggest that old military hardliners are in the ascendant in internal power struggles in the North, and its patterns of behavior are wearyingly familiar from the last days of former leader Kim Jong-il.

During the Workers” Party meeting, Kim called for a fight against abuse of power and “bureaucratism’ that he said undermined single-minded unity in North Korea.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed “serious concern” over a decision by South Korea to begin formal talks with the United States to adopt an advanced USA missile defense system, according to China’s foreign ministry on Friday. After North’s recent nuclear test, Washington has reportedly sought a ban on tourism and restrictions to keep North Korea’s flagship airline, Air Koryo, from flying into and out of airports overseas.

The reported military buildup Thursday came after the North Korean decision to expel South Koreans from a joint factory park. “North Korea should take all responsibility for what will happen from now on”, South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo told reporters.

The North’s reaction was swift.

Japan also unveiled unilateral measures on Wednesday, including prohibiting North Korean ships from entering Japanese ports and a total entry ban on North Korean nationals into Japan.

North Korea set a deadline of 5pm for South Korea to vacate the area ordering them not to bring anything other than their personal belongings.

North Korea, in a fit of anger over U.S.-South Korean military drills, pulled its workers from Kaesong for about five months in 2013. But, generally, the complex has always been seen as above the constant squabbling and occasional bloodshed between the rival Koreas, one of the last bright spots in a relationship more often marked by threats of war.

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.

More than 120 South Korean companies employed about 54,000 North Koreans at Kaesong, paying each about $150 a month to manufacture products such as clothing, wristwatches, cosmetics products and electronics components.

The industrial park gave a rare glimpse of the life in the South to low-wage North Korean workers and provided valuable foreign currency to the North.