South Korea – North responsible for consequences from Kaesong shutdown

It cut off all lines of communication with its southern neighbor, including a military hotline and a direct phone line at an office in the border village of Panmunjom.

Isolated North Korea regularly dismisses the South as a puppet of the United States and just as regularly accuses both of acts of war against it.

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation on Friday broadening sanctions against North Korea, sending the measure to President Barack Obama to sign into law. About 26% of South Korea’s exports go to China, and the large firms like Samsung and LG have huge investments in China. They were prohibited from taking anything apart from personal items.

There are more than 5,000 South Korean suppliers that sell intermediary materials and parts to the 124 companies in Kaesong, according to the Korea Federation of SMEs.

The South Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex Business Association held an emergency meeting Friday and said the government had made an unfair decision when it shut down operations, local news network YTN reported.

“I’m devastated now”, Kang said by phone, saying he’s anxious about losing credibility with clients because of the crisis. The report didn’t elaborate on what that meant. South Korea responded by beginning work Thursday to shut down the Kaesong factories, the last major symbol of Korean cooperation. 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 statement was issued to the South only 40 minutes before the deportation deadline.

South Korean government analysts say the area around the Kaesong factory park was one of the few places outside of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, that enjoyed a stable power and water supply, largely because of the infrastructure built by Seoul. Prior to the opening of the inter-Korean park in 2004, the North stationed military forces there.

China’s foreign minister says a planned U.S. missile defence system to protect South Korea from North Korea could threaten Chinese security. After all, about 280 South Korean nationals managed to return to the South after 10 p.m. Thursday.

“We expressed very grave regret over the North’s move”.

Wang also repeated China’s stance that sanctions “are not the aim” and that everyone should think of ways to restart talks on the North Korean nuclear issue. Five abductees and their families later returned to Japan but Tokyo wants to know the fate of the remaining eight, who Pyongyang has said are dead, and others that Japan believes were also kidnapped.

South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo told a news conference that North Korea’s action to freeze the assets was “illegal” and warned the North not to do anything to damage the property of South Korean companies.