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The 280 South Koreans who had remained in Kaesong rushed to vacate the industrial park on Thursday evening, completing the pullout at 11:05 p.m. (1405 GMT), said the South's Unification Ministry, which handles ties with the North. A few minutes before midnight, the South shut off the supply of electricity into Kaesong that powered the factory zone, the ministry said early on Friday. The action also cuts off water supply, it said. ... The Kaesong project employed about 55,000 North Koreans, who were given a taste of life in the South, working for the 124 mostly small and medium sized...

WASHINGTON: South Korea's president on Wednesday proposed an international park on the tense border with North Korea as part of a peace initiative to bring down soaring tensions in the region. "The Demilitarized Zone must live up to its name, a zone that strengthens the peace, not undermines it," President Park Geun-Hye told a joint meeting of the US House of Representatives and Senate. "It is with this vision in mind that I hope to work towards an international park inside the DMZ. It will be a park that sends a message of peace to all of humanity," she said....

Seoul monitors possible N.K. military realignment in Kaesong By Kim Eun-jung SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's defense ministry said Monday it is closely watching North Korea's moves near a suspended joint industrial zone amid rising concern the North many increase its military presence in the border area. Angered by joint South Korea-U.S. military drills, Pyongyang earlier this month pulled its workers out of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and banned South Koreans from crossing the border to bring food and supplies. After Pyongyang rejected Seoul's offer of talks to resolve the weeks-long stalemate, the South Korean government on Friday...

Looks like North Korea wasn’t bluffing about cutting off one of their only channels to hard currency and global trade. This morning, a high-ranking official of the DPRK announced that all 51,000 workers at the Kaesong industrial complex would leave, shutting down the last link of cooperation between North and South: North Korea said Monday it will recall 51,000 North Korean workers and suspend operations at a factory complex it has jointly run with South Korea, moving closer to severing its last economic link with its rival as tensions escalate.The statement from Kim Yang Gon, secretary of a key decision-making...

North Korea on Wednesday delayed the entry of South Koreans to a joint industrial complex in a rare move amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula, the South's Unification Ministry said. "North Korea has not yet given us the daily permission for the entry of 484 South Koreans into Kaesong today," a South Korean Unification Ministry spokeswoman told AFP. The border crossing usually takes place at 8:30 am (2330 GMT), but there has been no word from the North's officials for almost an hour, she said. The delay sparked fears the North could carry out its threatened shutdown of the...

This is a link to the original Japanese story just now.Rather sketchy and breaking, but will synopsize main points into English as thus:There is the large Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea for manufacturing products, which is just across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the truce village of Panmunjom, jointly run by North and South Korea. You can clearly see this development from overlook vantage points on hills located around Panmunjom. There are a number of South Korean managers and employers there on-site as we speak. At this time, they are apparantly not free to leave.N. Korea is threatening to...

S. Korea urges halt of trade with North By the CNN Wire Staff Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korea is asking some companies to stop signing trade deals with North Korea, as tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship continue, South Korean media reported Thursday. Government officials are asking companies that send raw materials to North Korea for processing to stop dealing with the North, Yonhap news agency reported. However, the new measure does not apply to more than 100 South Korean companies that operate in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, Yonhap reported. Those companies...

South Korean worker held at Kaesong for critical comments March 31, 2009 A South Korean worker is being interrogated by North Korean authorities at the joint industrial complex at Kaesong for allegedly criticizing the communist country’s political system, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said yesterday. “We were informed by immigration authorities of the Kaesong Industrial Complex around 11:50 a.m. this morning that a South Korean employee of a company there is being investigated,” said the Unification Ministry’s deputy spokeswoman Lee Jong-ju. “The North claimed that the South Korean worker had criticized the country’s political system, so an investigation is being...

Koryo Pottery Was Headed for Kaesong Underwater excavation in the waters near Dae Island off Taean, South Chungcheong Province has unearthed some 19,000 pieces of 12th-century Koryo celadon, including a lion-shaped incense burner, a toad-shaped inkstone a melon-shaped kettle, and countless bowls. The find was originally made in May, when a fisherman found a pottery shard stuck to the suckers of a webfoot octopus, and an excavation got underway soon afterwards. The National Maritime Museum on Thursday said wooden tags unearthed in the excavation show that the celadon was on its way to Kaesong after being made at a local...

"S. Korean Dollar Payments to Kaesong (North Korea) Illegal"

Ancient Relics Discovered at Kaesong Industrial ComplexThousands of historical remains such as figures of bull images were found at the Kaesong Industrial Complex. Korea Land Corporation has conducted a joint excavation with North Korea since last June in 12 areas of the Kaesong Industrial Complex in which relics were distributed, and discovered a huge amount of historical remains from the Old Stone Age to the Chosun (Joseon) Dynasty. Iron figure bull image found at Gaesong Industrial Complex./Yonhap The figures of bull images were found where a Koryo Dynasty building had been, and were probably buried during construction as part of...