North Korea said it was kicking out all South Koreans from the jointly run Kaesong industrial zone today, calling the South's move to suspend operations, in retaliation for Sunday's rocket launch by the North, a "declaration of war".
The North declared the industrial park, run by the rivals as a symbol of cooperation for more than a decade, a military control zone, the agency that handles its ties with Seoul said, according to the official KCNA news agency.
Dozens of South Korean trucks were already returning across the border earlier in the day, laden with goods and equipment, after the South said it was pulling out.
Isolated North Korea regularly dismisses the South as a puppet of the United States and just as regularly accuses both of acts of war against it.
DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North Korea tested what it said was a hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6 and on Sunday launched a rocket, putting a satellite into orbit.
The United States, Japan and South Korea said Sunday's launch was a ballistic missile test, and like last month's nuclear test, a violation of U.N. resolutions. The U.S. Senate voted unanimously in favour of tougher sanctions.
North Korea ordered South Koreans out of the zone by late afternoon, forbidding them to take anything other than personal belongings, KCNA said. South Korea said after the North's announcement that its top priority was the safe return of all of its people.