TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - South Korea has cut off power and water supplies to a factory park in North Korea, officials said Friday, February 12, 2016, a day after the North deported all South Korean workers there and ordered a military takeover of the complex that had been the last major symbol of cooperation between the rivals.
It is the latest in an escalating standoff over North Korea's recent rocket launch that Seoul, Washington and their allies view as a banned test of missile technology. The North says its actions on the Kaesong complex were a response to Seoul's earlier decision to suspend operations as punishment for the launch.
On Thursday night, the 280 South Korean workers who had been at the park crossed the border into South Korea, several hours after a deadline set by the North passed. Their departure quashed concerns that some might be held hostage, and lowered the chances that the standoff might lead to violence or miscalculations.
But they were not allowed to bring back any finished products and equipment at their factories because the North announced it will freeze all South Korean assets there.
The North also said it was closing an inter-Korean highway linking to Kaesong and shutting down two cross-border communication hotlines.
"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, as quoted by the Associated Press.
AP
