The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) expelled some officials of the Republic of Korea (ROK) from a joint factory park north of the border yesterday.
The predawn expulsion of the officials at the Kaesong industrial site, once hailed as a model of economic cooperation, is one of the most aggressive moves in years by the DPRK against the ROK.
The ROK's presidential Blue House spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said after an emergency meeting that Pyongyang's measure "was a very regrettable incident that could damage progress of economic cooperation between the South and the North".
President Lee Myung-bak's government, in office barely a month, has taken a tough stance towards the North on human rights issues and nuclear disarmament.
Spokesman Lee said the DPRK needs to be more predictable in its dealing with the South, adding his government did not want the situation to deteriorate.
Park Young-ho, an expert on DPRK at the South's Korea Institute for National Unification, said: "You can see this move as North Korea (DPRK) trying to train the new South Korean (ROK) government and put pressure on it."
He added Pyongyang was also looking to stir up conflict in the South over how to engage with the DPRK.
The North's official media has yet to report that Lee has become president, the first conservative in the job after a decade of left-of-center leaders that approached Pyongyang with aid and economic cooperation.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
The North's KCNA news agency this month quoted an official as warning that conservative elements in Seoul were upsetting relations by "letting loose malignant vituperation, slandering and defiling even the regime and system in the DPRK."
A ROK Unification Ministry official said the North had told 11 ROK officials on Monday they would have to leave the site, finally forcing them out before dawn yesterday.
Some 23,000 DPRK people work in nearly 70 ROK factories at the park, about 70 km northwest of Seoul, producing clothing, shoes, watches and other goods for salaries a fraction of those in the South.
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