N Korea bans entry of S Korean workers

Those moves, paired together, raised concerns in the region about the prospect for armed conflict amid uncertainty on whether the North is blustering, bluffing, or rather becoming more dangerous than it’s been since the Korean War.

In recent weeks the North has upped its hostile rhetoric while also pulling the plugs on its few lines of communication with the South, including at Kaesong Industrial Complex and a military hotline along the demilitarized border.

The statement issued Thursday followed up on a threat last month to launch preemptive nuclear strikes on the United States and its allies, including South Korea.

The North blamed Washington for its “hostile” policy and said its resentment toward the United States has reached an “irrepressible phase.”

“The moment of explosion is approaching fast,” the North said. “No one can say a war will break out in Korea or not and whether it will break out today or tomorrow.”

Some analysts say the North is using the threats as a way to raise tensions and pressure Seoul or Washington into negotiations. For new South Korean President Park Geun-hye, the next days will be critical in determining the future of Kaesong, where North and South Koreans worked side by side until Wednesday.

Experts said the North may be reluctant to close the Kaesong complex — located six miles north of the heavily fortified border. They said the North may instead hope to spark alarm from its richer neighbor, whose people typically view Pyongyang as a worrisome but far-removed threat — one unlikely to upend their own lives.

But the North’s decision to ban entry presents an immediate and “serious” obstacle to the roughly 120 South Korean businesses that operate at Kaesong, a South Korean government spokesman said.

North Korea has tried in recent weeks to boost tensions on the peninsula, nullifying an armistice agreement, declaring a “state of war” and vowing to produce new fissile material for its nuclear weapons. But the Kaesong move marks an even more forceful step, showing the North’s willingness to meddle with — and potentially lose — a cash cow that generates between $20 million and $100 million annually for the authoritarian government, according to estimates from economists.

The North banned entry to Kaesong at least once before, for a matter of days in 2009 during joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. But officials in Seoul and Washington say the situation on the peninsula is now more volatile, with the North controlled by a relatively new leader, Kim Jong Un, and the South promising an immediate military counterstrike if provoked.


/The Washington Post/