North Korea Cuts Contacts With South, Bars Workers (Update1)

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North Korea Cuts Contacts With South, Bars Workers (Update1)

By Heejin Koo

 

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea cut its last communications channel with the government in Seoul and barred South Koreans from traveling to a shared industrial complex, as the regime protested U.S.-South Korea military exercises today.

The communist nation also ordered its armed forces to be combat ready and threatened retaliation if its territory is violated during the drills, which last until March 20.

“Our government is distressed at North Korea’s continued actions and announcements,” South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho Nyoun told reporters today in Seoul.

More than 700 South Koreans were unable to enter the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea today because of the severing of military communications necessary for crossing the border and it is unclear whether 572 workers there will be allowed to return, he added.

Tensions have risen on the Korean Peninsula in recent weeks and U.S. and South Korean officials say that North Korea is preparing to test a ballistic missile theoretically capable of reaching Alaska.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, says it is preparing to launch a communications satellite as part of a “peaceful” space project.

The General Staff of North Korea’s army said it will retaliate with prompt counterstrikes if the satellite is shot down, the official Korea Central News Agency reported today.

 

Return Home

 

The Unification Ministry said it is in telephone contact with the South Koreans in Gaeseong, who are negotiating their return home with North Korean officials. The spokesman declined to comment on what actions South Korea was willing to take to ensure their safety.

The Gaeseong site is the centerpiece of a 10-year policy of engagement with North Korea under former South Korean presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun.

The companies in Gaeseong, some of which began operations in 2004, pay 30,000 North Koreans about $70 a month each to make clothes, shoes, watches and other light industrial goods.

The communist state expelled South Korean government officials from the complex in March last year and restricted border access on Dec. 1, protesting what it called the “hostile policies” of President Lee Myung Bak’s administration.

Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said he expects the regime to allow South Koreans back into the complex when the military drill ends. “I don’t believe North Korea wants to close down the Gaeseong facilities because it’s a source of dollar income for them,” he said.

 

Military Drills

 

The U.S. and South Korea have held annual military drills since 1976. They were suspended between 1994 and 1996 as part of diplomatic efforts to coax North Korea to agree to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

The exercises involve some of the 28,500 American soldiers stationed in South Korea as well as an undisclosed number of other U.S. personnel in the region, according to the United States Forces Korea Web site.

The military drills started as scheduled today and are “purely defensive,” said USFK spokesman Dave Palmer.

North and South Korea are still technically at war as their 1950-1953 conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. They are separated on the 38th parallel, where 1.7 million soldiers face off each day.

 

Nuclear Talks

 

Kim Jong Il’s regime agreed in February 2007 to scrap its nuclear program in return for energy aid and normalized diplomatic ties with the U.S. and Japan.

The disarmament talks, also involving China, South Korea and Russia, are stalled, with North Korea refusing to let inspectors remove samples from its Yongbyon reactor, the source of the regime’s weapons-grade plutonium.

Relations have worsened between the governments in Seoul and Pyongyang since Lee took office a year ago. Lee has called for tougher monitoring of economic ventures with North Korea and demanded progress on nuclear disarmament.

North Korea has repeatedly called Lee a “traitor” and a “sycophant to the U.S.” Kim’s regime announced in January that it would scrap all military and political agreements with South Korea, further raising tensions.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heejin Koo in Seoul at hjkoo@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: March 9, 2009 00:01 EDT