SEOUL - South Korea on Wednesday announced a plan to completely stop operations at a jointly run factory park with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) over Pyongyang's recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.
Unification Minister Hong Yong-Pyo told a televised press briefing that the DPRK conducted extremist provocations, including the fourth nuclear test and long-range missile launch, in defiance of repeated warnings from the international community.
The DPRK launched a rocket on Sunday to deliver an observation satellite into orbit after testing what it claimed was its first H-bomb on Jan. 6. Pyongyang is banned under UN Security Council resolutions from testing any ballistic missile technology and conducting a nuclear test.
Calling the recent moves as an intolerable act and a challenge to peace and stability to the Korean peninsula and the world, Hong said Pyongyang has never shown intention to give up its nuclear and missile programs as seen in the DPRK's recent declaration of plans to continue nuclear and missile tests.
No change of this situation would advance the DPRK's nuclear capability and result in devastating disasters, Hong said, expressing worries that the DPRK' nuclear development may lead to a "nuclear domino" in the region.
Operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex were stopped again in about two and a half years after the DPRK's withdrawal of its workers led to the suspension for over five months between April 8 and Sept. 15 in 2013.
The inter-Korean factory park, where the first product was manufactured in December 2004, was the last remaining symbol of cooperation between Seoul and Pyongyang. About 120 South Korean companies were employing over 53,000 DPRK workers there.
