The Korean central news agency reported on Monday, North Korea will withdraw all its employees from the Kaesong Industrial zone, citing a statement issued by Kim Yang Gon, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

North Korean employee in Kaesong industrial complex. Photo: Reuters

Operations in the zone, which houses about 120 South Korean companies with some 53,000 North Korean employees, will be temporarily suspended. The statement added that “how the situation will develop in the days ahead will entirely depend on the attitude of the South Korean authorities.” The same day, the South Korean Defense Ministry said there is no sign that North Korea is preparing for the 4^th nuclear test. At a press conference in the Hague, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged Pyongyang to curb “any moves that create tension”. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed a US decision to cancel a planned ballistic missile test to avoid provoking North Korea. Putin said any military conflict on the Korean Peninsula could worsen the situation there, even worse than the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.