Seoul, US to open talks on missile defense aimed at N. Korea

“North Korea only took these steps after South Korea said it was going to temporarily halt operations at the complex”, points out Seoul-based reporter Jason Strother. Officials say they have yet to set a specific starting date for the talks.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Among the losers in the retaliatory sparring between the rival Koreas are residents who had been depending on a rarity in impoverished North Korea: a steady supply of water from the now-shuttered jointly run factory park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Munich on Thursday to explain the shutdown and urge Beijing to play a responsible role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Transmission towers supplying power to the Kaesong Industrial Complex from South Korea, are seen on a foggy and rainy day after South Korea cut off power, in Paju, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016.

Meanwhile, South Korea will begin talks with Washington on the deployment of an advanced USA missile defense system as early as next week, a South Korean defense official told Reuters.

The north also declared the area a military zone, and said it was cutting off all military communications with Seoul, including the hotline at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

But on Thursday afternoon the North suddenly ordered the immediate departure of the remaining hundreds of South Korean citizens at the complex.

The official said the THAAD deployment was created to protect South Korea from North Korean threats and was not targeting China or anyone else.

South Korea and the United States said that if THAAD was deployed to South Korea, it would be focused only on the North. China and Russian Federation have expressed concern about the potential deployment of a system that operates a radar that could penetrate deep into their territories. But the plan appears to have accelerated after North Korea launched a long-range rocket Sunday and placed what it described as an “Earth observation satellite” into orbit, just weeks after carrying out its fourth nuclear test.

The KN-08 missile would have an estimated range of more than 3,400 miles (5,500 kilometers), and North Korea already has six “road-mobile” launchers for it, according to the annual report delivered to congressional committees Friday and obtained by Bloomberg News.

“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 The Associated Press by phone before he crossed to the South.

Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said the North Korean action was “very regrettable” and warned the North not to damage South Korean assets in Kaesong. It calls them “among the most highly trained, well-equipped, best fed and highly motivated” forces in North Korean leader Kim Jung Un’s military.

More than 50,000 North Koreans work in the cluster of 124 South Korean-owned factories.