Seoul: The United States and its Asian allies tightened the economic screws on North Korea today with the US Senate adopting fresh sanctions and South Korean firms abandoning a joint industrial park that helped fund Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.
The unilateral moves, which also included Japanese sanctions, came with UN Security Council members still stalled on how far to go in punishing the North for its latest nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.
Following Seoul's surprise decision to shut down the Kaesong industrial zone in North Korea, hundreds of South Korean trucks crossed the border today morning to retrieve finished goods and equipment from the factories there.
Defending what it called an "unavoidable" decision to close the jointly-run park, Seoul said North Korea had been using the hundreds of millions of dollars in hard-currency that it earned from Kaesong to fund its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
The move was slammed as "utterly incomprehensible" by owners of the 124 South Korean companies operating factories in the estate, who said their businesses were being destroyed by politics.
'Jump off a cliff'"It's as if we're just being ordered to jump off a cliff to our deaths," said Jeong Gi-Seob, head of the Kaesong owners' association.
While discussion of Kaesong has often focused on its financial importance to the cash-strapped North, it has also been a lucrative concern for many of the companies involved.
As well as cheap, Korean-language labour, they received preferential loans and tax breaks from the South Korean government, which effectively underwrote their investment.
Seoul has called on Pyongyang to ensure the "safe return of our citizens" amid concerns that the North Korean authorities might refuse to let everyone leave the park, which lies 10 kilometres (six miles) over the border.
In September 2014, Pyongyang drafted a new operational regulation -- rejected by Seoul -- that would have allowed the North to detain South Korean businessmen in Kaesong in the event of an unresolved business dispute.
Safety concerns"It would be a lie to say I'm not worried about my personal safety," said one textile company operative, Yoon Sang-Young, as he prepared to cross the border.
"I'm not sure what the situation is like at the complex. I don't even know whether the North Korean workers are there," Yoon said.
Born out of the "sunshine" reconciliation policy of the late 1990s, Kaesong opened in 2004 and proved remarkably resilient, riding out repeated crises that ended every other facet of inter-Korean cooperation.
The only exception was in 2013 during a period of heightened cross-border tensions when Pyongyang effectively shut down the zone for five months by withdrawing its 53,000 workers.
There has so far been no official reaction from Pyongyang to the shutdown.
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel said Seoul's move was a "compelling indicator of the seriousness with which they regard the provocative steps" taken by North Korea.
"More steps are needed to convince the (North Korean) leadership that it is not going to be possible to have access to the international economic system let alone economic or financial aid as long as North Korea continues to pursue nuclear and missile programmes," Russel said.
New US sanctionsThe US Senate later voted unanimously in favour of expanded sanctions.
The measure, which must be reconciled with a similar House version that passed last month, would penalise any person or entity importing goods, technology or training related to weapons of mass destruction, or engaging in human rights abuses.
It also aims to cut down on money laundering and narcotics trafficking -- two major illicit activities believed to be funnelling millions of dollars into leader Kim Jong-Un's inner circle.
"This dictatorial regime must learn that its actions have consequences," said House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Japan also unveiled fresh unilateral sanctions on Wednesday, including prohibiting North Korean ships from entering Japanese ports and a total entry ban on North Korean nationals into Japan.
North Korea's main diplomatic protector, China, has been resisting the US-led push for tougher UN sanctions.
Although fiercely critical of Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, Beijing is more concerned at the prospect of Kim's regime being pushed to collapse -- triggering chaos on China's border.
From building statues and training police in Africa to trading with India and Thailand, North Korea is managing to maintain business ties and friendly diplomatic relations with a dwindling number of Cold War-era friends.
That is despite being cut off from much of the world for conducting a decade of banned rocket and nuclear tests, including the launch of a rocket last weekend that North Korea says put a satellite into space. The United States and its allies saw the launch as a missile test.
Indeed, Pyongyang has been squeezed by layers of U.N. sanctions since 2006 targeting its once-lucrative arms trade and the flow of money that financed its weapons programme.
China, North Korea's most important ally, as well as Russia have signed up to UN Security Council sanctions over the missile and nuclear tests.
Votes in the UN General Assembly over the past decade censuring Pyongyang on human rights also show ebbing global support.
Thailand, which had abstained from voting on six resolutions against North Korea has since 2011 voted in favour of the three on which votes were recorded.
Botswana severed diplomatic ties with North Korea in 2014, linking its decision to a UN report on crimes against humanity in North Korea, while Indonesia switched in 2010 from voting against North Korea human rights resolutions to abstaining, according to U.N. records.
Still, the country has enjoyed consistent backing in U.N. General Assembly votes on human rights from a core group including Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Venezuela, which is currently part of the 15-member Security Council, as well as from China and Russia.
Much of North Korea's support is from fellow members of the Cold War-era Non-Aligned Movement, with which it trades in goods and services.
Besides China, which accounts for 90 percent of its trade, North Korea's biggest trading partners in recent years include Russia, India and Thailand, according to South Korean government data through to 2014.
It has imported Indian dyes and paints, Russian mineral oil and Thai rubber, and sold electronic components to India and clothes to Russia.
India exported precious metals and stones worth nearly $2 million to North Korea in 2014, up from $103,000 in 2013, said a report by the U.N. Security Council's Panel of Experts on North Korea, which monitors implementation of sanctions.
The report, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, said India told it the exports did not violate a ban on luxury goods entering North Korea.
Statues and SmugglingWhen North Korea set out to forge diplomatic ties in newly independent African countries, founding leader Kim Il Sung provided financial and military support.
It has also sent artists and construction engineers to Africa to build public artworks to earn revenue. A $27 million North Korea-built bronze statue called the Monument of African Renaissance that opened in 2010 in Senegal stands taller than the Statue of Liberty.
"In the 1950s and 1960s, North Korea made much more progress on the diplomatic front than South Korea," said Yoon Hae-joong, South Korea's ambassador to Indonesia between 2003 and 2005, describing North Korea's diplomatic relationships as mostly about form and symbolism, not substance.
Last year, a report by the UN expert panel noted police cooperation between North Korea and Uganda, with the North Koreans providing training on the use of AK-47s and pistols.
The latest report said training was continuing as of December.
Uganda has abstained from voting on all nine UN General Assembly resolutions on North Korean human rights for which votes were counted since 2005, a record mirrored by countries including India, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mali and Qatar.
Hong Soon-kyung, a North Korean defector, said that when he worked as a counsellor at Pyongyang's embassy in Bangkok during the 1990s, he imported Thai rice for his famine-stricken homeland and did business for a North Korean biometric firm, which he said was funded by a Singaporean businessman.
"North Korea opened up a state fingerprint firm's branch to make money out of fingerprint keys," said Hong, who also served in Pakistan, where he says he sold expensive duty-free liquor to local merchants, before defecting to the South in 2000.
North Korea has 53 embassies and overseas missions, according to South Korean government data, some of which have been notorious for engaging in business, including illicit activities.
Last year, Bangladesh expelled a North Korean diplomat caught smuggling $1.4 million worth of gold.
