Paju (South Korea) – North Korea said it was kicking out all South Koreans from the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Zone.
Government said while making the declaration on Thursday in Paju (South Korea), that the South’s move to suspend operations, in retaliation for Sunday’s rocket launch by the North, was a declaration of war.
North Korea government said it has ordered South Koreans out of the zone by late afternoon, and forbidding them to take anything other than personal belongings.
The North declared that the industrial park, run by the rivals as a symbol of cooperation for more than a decade, a military control zone, the agency that handles its ties with Seoul said.
Meanwhile, the South Korea said after the North’s announcement that its top priority was the safe return of its entire people.
A government agency that monitored the event declared that dozens of South Korean trucks were already returning across the border earlier in the day, laden with goods and equipment, after the South said it was pulling out.
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The North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said, referring to South Korea”Unpardonable is the puppet group’s act of totally suspending the operation in (Kaesong), finding fault with the DPRK’s H-bomb test and launch of a satellite.
Isolated North Korea regularly dismisses the South as a puppet of the U.S.and just as regularly accuses both of acts of war against it.
North Korea tested what it said was a hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6 and on Sunday launched a rocket, putting a satellite into orbit.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea said the Sunday’s launch was a ballistic missile test, and like last month’s nuclear test, a violation of UN resolutions.
The U.S. Senate voted unanimously in favour of tougher sanctions. (Reuters/NAN)