North Korea has withdrawn all of its government officials from a joint facility with South Korea in its border town of Kaesong this week, cutting off the last direct channel for communication with Seoul, an official at the Unification Ministry said Saturday.
"The North Korean side notified (Seoul) on Friday that some of its representatives at the inter-Korean economic cooperation promotion committee office are withdrawing," Yang Chang-seok, a spokesman for the Unification Ministry, told reporters.
The spokesman said Pyongyang pulled out its government officials from the joint dialogue office, where nine representatives, including five to six civilian and business delegates from each side, have been permanently stationed to discuss government and business projects between the divided Koreas.
"Therefore, we think we will face difficulties for a while in working-level negotiations between the governments which have been conducted at the economic cooperation promotion committee office," Yang said.
The pullout comes as the second attempt by Pyongyang to protest Seoul's suspension of its humanitarian aid, including rice and fertilizer, for the impoverished North following Pyongyang's launch of seven medium and long-range missiles on July 5.
The communist state said earlier in the week it would no longer hold Red Cross-sponsored programs to reunite families separated by the nation's division, also calling for an immediate halt of the construction of a separated family reunion center at its Mount Geumgang resort.
Some 130 South Korean workers from Hyundai Asan, the North Korea business arm of the Hyundai Group, were pulled out of the construction site on Friday.
The North's business representatives would remain at the joint economic cooperation office, whose main task is to seek ways to expand and speed up the construction of a joint industrial complex just outside of the North Korean city, the ministry spokesman said.
"The government will now have to ask the North's business representatives to relay its message to their government" if there is a need to contact the North Korean government, Yang told Yonhap News Agency.
"Our (government) officials will continue to work at the economic cooperation promotion committee office in Kaesong to help South Korean businesses' negotiations with their North Korean counterparts," the ministry spokesman said in a released statement.
The North's decision apparently does not affect its military liaison officers at the truce village of Panmunjeom, according to government officials.
The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war as the three-year Korean War only ended with a 1953 ceasefire.
Seoul, July 22 (Yonhap News)
Pyongyang cuts off last direct dialogue channel with Seoul: ministry |
