ROK denies report of DPRK withdrawal demand

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea denied a media report alleging the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) required all ROK's workers to leave the Kaesong Industrial Complex, saying that the reports arose from the misunderstanding of a notice from the DPRK.

"The North (DPRK) required some companies to submit their plan to leave Kaesong for Seoul by April 10. But, it was misinformed as if it was a demand for all pullout of workers from Kaesong," the spokesperson's office at the Ministry of Unification said in a statement on Thursday.

The statement came shortly after Yonhap News Agency reported that the DPRK urged all ROK's workers to leave Kaesong by next Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Pyongyang barred ROK's workers from entering the joint industrial zone at the DPRK's border town of Kaesong, only allowing the workers to leave Kaesong to come back to Seoul. The ROK's government expressed deep regrets over the ban, urging the DPRK to immediately normalize operations of the complex.

Tensions have been running high on the Korean Peninsula since the DPRK conducted its third nuclear test on Feb 12 in a protest against the joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.

The DPRK declared last weekend that it had entered "a state of war" against the ROK, saying that the state of neither peace nor war has ended on the Korean Peninsula. It has also threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear strike for self-defense, unilaterally nullifying the 1953 armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

In response to the DPRK's repeated threats of war, US Strategic Command dispatched two B-2 stealth bombers that can carry nuclear weapons from Missouri to conduct its first-ever firing drill in the ROK. It also positioned F-22 stealth fighters for the ongoing joint military drill between Seoul and Washington.

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