WASHINGTON DC – South Korea has ordered the departure of all remaining nationals from the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex after North Korea failed to respond to demands for talks on the issue.

A statement made by South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae this evening said, “We’ve made the inevitable decision to bring back all the remaining personnel in Kaesong for the protection of our people as their difficulties continue to grow.”

The move comes after North Korea recalled over 50,000 of its workers from Kaesong on April 9 and blocked South Korean managers and cargo from entering the Kaesong complex on April 3. While a large number of South Koreans left Kaesong after the North Korean withdrawal, Ryoo said today that a remaining 175 would soon be returning home.

In his statement Ryoo also called on North Korea to respect South Korean property left at Kaesong and ensure the safe passage of South Korean nationals as they return home.

Following the 2008 shut down of a jointly run tourist venture at Mount Kumgang, North Korea seized all South Korean assets after demands were ignored that the inter-Korean tourist project be restarted. It is not yet clear if North Korea will take similar steps with South Korean assets left at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

Predicting the South Korean withdrawal, a statement released by North Korea’s National Defence Commission (NDC) prior to Ryoo’s evening comments said that Pyongyang would  “guarantee” the personal safety of any South Korean workers withdrawing. But the NDC added that if South Korea kept “aggravating the situation…it will be the DPRK, not south Korea, that will be forced to take the final decisive and crucial measure first.”

Director and Professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University Yoo Ho-Yeol told NK NEWS that it was regrettable that South Korea had not received a positive response from North Korea on the Kaesong issue.

“The South Korean government decision to bring all those people out of Kaesong seems to be a proper reaction to the provacative actions of the North Korean authorities. But it is not the last step, which would be a total closure of the Kaesong special economic zone. However, it will now be very difficult to see a quick and complete reconciliation between the sides until North Korea decides to give up its policy to maintain the status of a nuclear power state.”

Many observers were surprised that North Korea went through with threats to pull out of the Kaesong complex in mid-April, though a Daily NK source recently explained that the development may have been orchestrated to raise fear among locals of imminent war. “Who would have trusted the claim that South Korea and the U.S. were going to attack us when the Kaesong Complex was still operational?”, the source said.

The future of the Kaesong complex now looks highly uncertain. Tensions have been running high on the Korean peninsula since North Korea conducted a third nuclear test in February.

Picture Credit: KEI

South Korea has ordered the departure of all of its remaining nationals at the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex after North Korea failed to respond to demands for talks on the issue.