DPRK threatens to close industrial zone

PYONGYANG - The Kaesong industrial zone may cease to exist if the the Republic of Korea's authority continues its confrontation policy, said an official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Thursday.

The DPRK's decision to withdraw all its employees from the Kaesong industrial zone was targeting the hostile and provocative activities launched by the United States and the ROK, a spokesman of the Bureau for Central Guidance to the Development of the Special Zone told the official Korean Central News Agency.

A ROK's security guard keeps watch as trucks make a U-turn after they were stopped from entering the Kaesong industrial complex in the DPRK at the South's Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) area, just south of the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, north of Seoul, in this April 4, 2013 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

"The current power-holder in the South can never be able to shake off responsibility for having Kaesong, which survived even the traitor Lee Myung-bak's term in office, all but closed," the spokesman said.

The DPRK on Monday announced its decision to withdraw all its 54,000 workers from the joint industrial park at the DPRK's border town of Kaesong, effectively closing operations at the zone that is housing 123 ROK's companies.

The industrial zone was established under an agreement reached at the unprecedented inter-Korean summit in 2000 between late ROK's President Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong Il. It started operations in 2005.

The ROK's President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday voiced her disappointment over the DPRK's decision.