PYONGYANG, North Korea, April 22 (UPI) -- North Korea Monday accused South Korea of "intentionally fueling tensions" that led to suspension of operations at the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial complex.
Operations at the complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, just north of the Demilitarized Zone, were stopped early this month after the North, as part of its ongoing threats and gestures against the South, pulled all of its 53,000 workers from the complex and banned the entry of South Korean workers and supplies into the facility.
However, the Rodong Sinmun daily newspaper, an organ of the North's Workers Party of Korea, claimed the South cannot deflect blame for the deteriorating conditions at the industrial complex, South Korea's Yonhap News reported.
"By intentionally fueling tensions, (the South) destroyed the peaceful atmosphere needed to sustain the complex," the North Korean newspaper said.
The report also said South Korean media reports saying the complex is a major source of economic benefit to the impoverished North are serious provocations that insult the dignity of the country.
The Kaesong complex is operated by 123 South Korean factories and plants using North Korean labor and products from there are then brought back to the South. Currently, it is the only viable economic link between the two Koreas and the Seoul government has urged that operations at the complex resume.
In other developments, Yonhap, quoting South Korea intelligence officials, said two more missile launchers believed to be for Scud missiles have been moved recently to North Korea's east coast.
The South, along with Japan and the United States, has been on alert for any imminent long-range missile test by the isolated Communist country, but so far there has been no such test.
South Korean intelligence authorities say in early April the North moved two Musudan missiles to Wonsan and placed seven mobile missile transporter-erector-launchers in Wonsan and South Hamgyeong province on its eastern coast.
"The military is closely watching the North's latest preparations for a missile launch," a source told Yonhap. The North's next anniversary of the Korean People's Army will be Thursday.
