North Korea repeats threat to shut down Kaesong industrial zone

North Korea repeated its threat to shut down Kaesong industrial zone, where 123 South Korean firms operate factories, if the South's government continued to insult it and worsen the situation by mentioning a possible military action against it.

"The puppet conservative group and its media have refused to drop their confrontational ways and continued to say that we will not dare to do anything about the Kaesong industrial zone... because it is a "source of cash," KCNA quoted the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland as saying.

"If the South's puppet conservative gruop and its media continue bad-mouthing... we will be taking the stern measure of pulling out all of our workers from the Kaesong industrial zone."

More than 50,000 North Koreans are employed there. Pulling them out of the factories would effectively shut down the complex.