N. Korea trip potentially cancelled

My friends and I were planning on going on a trip to North Korea on December 21st but unfortunately the trip might be cancelled. I was reading that 70% of tours to N. Korea will be cancelled after the closing of the border on December 1st.

Boooo.

Here's the article:

More Than Half of Southerners to Be Expelled From Gaeseong

By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

North Korea will suspend cross-border train services and bar South Koreans from traveling to Gaeseong from next month.

The communist state also warned in a statement, Monday, that it will expel more than half of all South Koreans, selectively, from an inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong and the Mt. Geumgang resort.

The move was construed as a retaliatory measure against Seoul allegedly ignoring inter-Korean agreements made between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and former South Korean Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.

Observers did not rule out the possibility of the North taking further action as the statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said the measures were the ``first steps'' to cope with what it called a grave situation.

North Korea said in a separate letter that it will expel half of the personnel of the Kaesong (Gaeseong) Industrial District Management Committee (KIDMAC) including either its chairman or vice chairman.

It also said it will halve the number of staff members of South Korea's public companies including Korea Land Corp. stationed there.

However, Hyundai Asan, the operator of tour programs to Gaeseong and Mt. Geumgang, was notified that it can keep 70 percent of its staff there, a company executive said.

Inter-Korean relations have soured since the conservative South Korean government took office in February.

The North has refused to resume inter-Korean dialogue after kicking South Korean officials out of its territory and cutting all official communication channels.

It demands that Seoul first implement the June 15 and Oct. 4 inter-Korean agreements the former presidents signed with the North Korean leader in 2000 and 2007, respectively.

North Korea has also escalated its threats because some civic groups here continue to send anti-North Korea leaflets despite repeated warnings not to do so.

Some private companies including Acheon Global said they were informed that their officials will not be allowed to enter the North next month.

Several different letters containing the North's retaliatory measures were sent to organizations engaging in inter-Korean projects including KIDMAC; representatives of companies in the industrial complex and KOTRA as well as Hyundai Asan.

However, other private companies in the industrial park are expected to run factories since Pyongyang said it does not want to make those firms ``scapegoats'' of the confrontation.

Besides, it noted that core personnel of those companies would not be subject to the border shutdown.

The Stalinist state announced on Nov. 12 that it would strictly restrict or close all border crossings and a few hours later, cut off direct phone links at the truce village of Panmunjeom near the inter-Korean border.

Currently, 88 small- and medium-sized South Korean firms are operating in the complex, employing about 36,000 North Koreans and 1,200 South Koreans.

North Korea also halted rail travel between Bongdong Station in the North and Munsan in the South.

The North also warned that it would impose ``strong legal sanctions'' if the South ``causes other trouble.''

The North called in representatives of companies in the industrial site and asked them to submit a list of workers and vehicles stationed there.