DPRK accuses US of blocking key North-South cooperation project

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) accused the United States on November 6 of obstructing the construction of the Kaesong Industrial Zone, a joint development project of the North-South inter-Korean economic cooperation.

"The US has previously hindered its construction but this is the first time that (US) officials have openly declared an intention to obstruct the project," a spokesman for the Korean National Economic Cooperation Federation said in a statement.

According to the spokesman, a US official said recently that the construction of the industrial zone would harm US-S. Korean relations while the nuclear issue of Korean Peninsula was still atissue.

"The US is to trying to woo South Korea to implement its (the US') hard-line policy on nuclear and human rights issues," the spokesman said.

"The construction of the zone is the main project of inter-Korean economic cooperation and is an internal affair of the Korean nation. The US is not entitled to comment," said the spokesman.

The statement called upon all Koreans in the North and the South to conduct an anti-US struggle to defend the dignity and the sovereignty of the nation under the June 15 joint declaration.

The Kaesong Industrial Zone, located on the western border between the DPRK and South Korea, is a co-construction project between the two Koreas. The two sides co-inaugurated the Zone Management Committee and broke ground on the project on October 20.

Source: Xinhua