North Korea has laid out its first concrete measures to resrict traffic from South Korea. Starting December first, the north will stop train service between the two Koreas and end tours of its historic city of Kaesong. A television broadcaster also announced that the north will selectively expel South Koreans from a joint industrial zone in Kaesong.
The moves mark a new escalation of tension between the two contries still technically at war. A spokesman for the South Korean Unification Ministry expressed regret for the moves. Relations have been tense since the conservative president Lee Myung-bak took office in Feburary. He pledged to change policy on the north. North Korea suspended the reconciliation talks. It threatened to cut any remaining ties with the South after Lee took office.
Despite the chill in government-level ties, South Korea run factories continue to operate in the industrial complex in Kaesong. 35,000 North Koreans work in 80 South Korean factories. The South also called the north's actions a very grave situation and said they move South-North relations backward.
Matt Friedman, The Associated Press
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* lay out : ~을 준비하다, ~을 설계하다, [계획]을 입안하다, ~을 전시하다
* measure : 조치, 기준, 척도
* expel : ~을 쫓아버리다, ~을 내쫓다
* joint : 공동의, 연대의
(a joint industrial zone in Kaesong : 개성공단)
* escalation : 고조, 확대, 강화, 증대, 상승
* technically : 법률적으로
* pledge : 공약하다
* suspend : 중단하다
* reconciliation : 화해
* complex : 공단(공업단지)
* grave : 심각한
* move backward : 후퇴하다
