MOSCOW, April 26 (RIA Novosti) - South Korea announced Friday that it has decided to withdraw all workers from a joint industrial site in North Korea after Pyongyang rejected its offer for dialog, Yonhap news agency reported.
Seoul’s decision, announced by South Korea’s unification minister, Ryoo Kihl-jae, called into question the fate of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the last symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement established in 2004.
“We made the decision to withdraw all workers in light of mounting difficulties they face at the complex,” Ryoo told a national TV press conference.
South Korea on Thursday proposed holding talks with North Korea over the joint industrial complex that has been idle since the start of April amid growing inter-Korean tensions, Yonhap earlier reported.
North Korea has denied entry to Kaesong to South Korean workers, saying Seoul used the joint project to insult the North’s leaders. A total of 176 South Korean nationals, who chose to remain at the industrial site in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, are thought to have only small amounts of food and supplies.
All operations at Kaesong were suspended on April 9, when Pyongyang pulled out all of its 53,000 staff working for the 123 South Korean companies. Six days before, the North banned South Korean personnel from entering the complex.
Tensions have risen sharply on the Korean Peninsula since December, when North Korea tested a long-range Taepodong 2 missile, and in February carried out its third nuclear test.
The UN responded with sanctions. The start of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States last month further irritated the North, which threatened to carry out a nuclear attack on the US mainland, as well as on US forces in the region.
