South Korea Closes Down Shared Factory after North Korea Launches Rocket

South Korea announced on Wednesday that it has closed down its operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a factory it runs with North Korea.

Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo stated that the revenue coming from the factory, which opened in 2004 and exits on the North Korean side of the border, was "being used for North Korea's development of missile and nuclear weapons programs."

South Korea has a total of 124 companies at the complex, which hires about 54,700 North Korean employees, according to Reuters (via Huffington Post). Hong stated that the North has been asked to help the 184 South Korean workers return home safely.

The decision to suspend operations at the factory, which is one of the few signs of cooperation between the two countries, is one of the strongest signs of retaliation that South Korea has shown.

A retaliatory move did not come as a surprise especially after North Korea launched a satellite rocket on Feb. 7. South Korea, Japan and the United States believe that the rocket, which North Korea says is purely observational, is a front for a ballistic missile test.

Prior to the rocket, North Korea conducted an unsanctioned nuclear test on Jan. 6. South Korea, the U.S. and other nations have been trying to get the United Nations to punish North Korea with stronger sanctions for carrying out the test.

"We cannot stop North Korea's nuclear and missile programs with the existing methods of response," Hong said reported by the New York Times. "We need to act strongly together with the international community to ensure that North Korea pay a price, and we need to take special actions to leave the North with no option but to give up its nuclear program and change."

North Korea did not provide an immediate response to South Korea's announcement.