[Courtesy of Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee.]
South Korea will cut the number of its daily workforce staying at the jointly run Kaesong industrial park in the North to about 650 from the current 800 beginning Tuesday, the South’s unification ministry said on Monday.
A ministry spokesman told a news briefing that the government took a stronger measure to protect its citizens, after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test last week and the South in response restarted loudspeakers blaring propaganda towards the North.
The park, the last major remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, is considered a rare legitimate source of hard currency for the impoverished North.
Since Friday, South Korea has been blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda using loudspeakers along the border, a tactic that the North considers tantamount to a war. The North is also using speakers of its own to send messages to the South.
The two Koreas exchanged artillery fire in August when the South briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts after an 11-year break.
North Korea claims it exploded a hydrogen bomb last Wednesday, although the United States and outside experts doubt that the North had achieved such a technological advance in its fourth nuclear test.
In a show of force and support for its allies in the region, the United States on Sunday sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber based in Guam on a flight over South Korea.
By Alex Lee
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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