North Korea blocks South from shared Kaesong zone as crisis deepens

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Secretary of State John Kerry says recent rhetoric from North Korea is "unacceptable" and that the US will defend itself as well as South Korea from any threat from the North. Watch his entire news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se. By Alastair Jamieson and Andrea Mitchell, NBC NewsNorth Korea has banned South Korean workers from the jointly run Kaesong industrial zone in the latest escalation of the diplomatic crisis surrounding the rogue nuclear state.

Seoul said about 800 South Koreans who had stayed overnight at the complex were being allowed to return home, but that new workers were not being allowed across the border.

Kaesong, a major source of income for the impoverished, communist North, is home to 124 South Korean companies that employ 53,000 North Korean workers in a cross-border, heavily fortified joint enterprise. Permission is granted on a daily basis for South Korean workers to cross into the complex, situated in the North, the BBC reported.

"South Korea's government deeply regrets the entry ban and urges it be lifted immediately," South Korea official Kim Hyung-seok told reporters Wednesday.

The news came as China expressed "serious concern" to U.S. diplomats over the worsening crisis, which has already prompted the U.S. Navy to deploy a second destroyer in the western Pacific to respond to any missile threats from the North.

A Chinese official met ambassadors from the United States and both Koreas, expressing hope that Pyongyang and Seoul could resolve their differences through talks, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said, according to Reuters and Voice of America reporter Steve Herman.

PRC foreign ministry says Chinese official has meet US, #ROK, #DPRK ambassadors in Beijing to express "serious concern." #Korea

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 3, 2013

Russia also voiced concern about the rogue Communist state’s military apparatus, saying human error or technical malfunction may cause the situation on the Korean peninsula “to go out of control,” according to a report Wednesday on Russian news service Interfax.Vowing to reopen the Yongbyong nuclear reactor, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un showed no sign he's listening to the outside world and has no intention of giving up their nuclear weapons. NBC's Richard Engel reports. The comments came after Secretary of State John Kerry denounced North Korea's increasingly threatening rhetoric as "unacceptable," and said the U.S. would defend its allies, South Korea and Japan, from any threat from the North.

During a joint news conference with South Korea's foreign minister at the State Department on Tuesday, Kerry said North Korea knows what it needs to do if it wants to resume dialogue with the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, the USS Decatur was headed back to San Diego, Calif., when it was given a new mission: to join the USS McCain in a missile defense mission, Pentagon spokesman George Little said Tuesday.

A third destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, is also available to respond, if necessary, officials said.Slideshow: Glimpses into the hermit kingdom of North KoreaDavid Guttenfelder / APAs chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.Launch slideshowRelated:

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This story was originally published on Wed Apr 3, 2013 5:03 AM EDT

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