North Korea has suspended access to the Kaesong industrial zone shared with the South – the latest move amid escalating tensions on the peninsula.

North Korea has suspended access to the Kaesong industrial zone shared with the South – the latest move amid escalating tensions on the peninsula. South Korea’s defense minister warned that all options will be considered if worker safety is at risk.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry reports that 446 South Korean workers have been stranded at the Kaesong facility, waiting to cross back into home territory since the early hours of Wednesday. Normally, daily entry clearance is given via telephone.

There are a total of about 860 South Korean workers in the Kaesong zone. One hundred and seventy-nine South Korean staff showed up at the border on Wednesday morning, but North Korea also refused to let them in.

North Korea could be making good on an earlier promise to close off the complex as part of the increasingly bellicose rhetoric exchanged between the two countries, also involving Washington.

The US, the South’s key ally, has been responding to Pyongyang’s threats with counter threats and a military build-up, deploying strategic nuclear-capable bombers and advanced guided-missile destroyers in the region.