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Tensions mount along the DMZ as North Korea closes access to shared industrial complex

By PhotoBlog
South Korean soldiers patrol at the border with North Korea in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) near Imjingak in Gyeonggi-do Province, South Korea, on April 2. North Korea said it plans to restart its five megawatt nuclear reactor that was shut down under an agreement reached at the six-party talks in 2007, a move that will allow the North to extract plutonium from spent fuel rods.
South Korean soldiers patrol at the border with North Korea in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) near Imjingak in Gyeonggi-do Province, South Korea, on April 2. North Korea said it plans to restart its five megawatt nuclear reactor that was shut down under an agreement reached at the six-party talks in 2007, a move that will allow the North to extract plutonium from spent fuel rods.Jeon Heon-kyun / EPA

By Alastair Jamieson and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News

North Korea has banned South Korean workers from the jointly run Kaesong industrial zone in the latest escalation of the diplomatic crisis surrounding the rogue nuclear state.

Seoul said about 800 South Koreans who had stayed overnight at the complex were being allowed to return home, but that new workers were not being allowed across the border.

Kaesong, a major source of income for the impoverished, communist North, is home to 124 South Korean companies that employ 53,000 North Korean workers in a cross-border, heavily fortified joint enterprise. Permission is granted on a daily basis for South Korean workers to cross into the complex, situated in the North, the BBC reported. Continue reading.

 

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