It has been three weeks since North Korea closed its border to commuters and vehicles carrying textiles and other materials to South Korean factories operating in the Gaeseong industrial complex. It does not even permit the shipment of foodstuffs to South Korean staff manning the factories, whose number is now cut to 190, one-third of the usual level.

The 123 South Korean companies, mostly garment manufacturers, whose employees are waiting for entry permits, are fretting over snowballing losses. As the South Korean government says, what is most important for them is restarting factory operations that came to a halt when 53,000 North Korean workers were withdrawn two weeks ago.

But an early resumption of operations appears to be out of the question, with the North turning down an offer by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business to send a delegation for negotiations.

When it banned border crossings, the communist neighbor cited as a reason what it called damage done to its dignity by a South Korean newspaper, which said in its commentary that the industrial complex was one of the few sources of hard currency for the hard-pressed North. The daily went on to say that earnings from the industrial complex were lining the pockets of North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong-un.

But the motive behind the ban must be found elsewhere, because the North could have ignored such a comment as it had often done in the past, though it might have put a small dent on its self-esteem. It would not be far off the mark to guess that Pyongyang closed the border as another means of escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula in protest against the annual joint South Korea-U.S. military maneuvers and the Washington-led U.N. sanctions on its third nuclear test in February.

With no early breakthrough seen in the standoff between North Korea on one side and South Korea and United States on the other, Pyongyang is hardly expected to reopen its border anytime soon. As such, patience is demanded of the South Korean companies operating in the industrial complex.

The South Korean government will also have to exercise patience, instead of begging for talks on border crossings. Addressing the issue in a wider geopolitical context would be a more practical approach, though it may prove to be time-consuming, given North Korea’s ill-advised response to a South Korean proposal to hold talks on stalled operations in the industrial complex and to a separate U.S. call for dialogue on security and denuclearization.

As conditions for talks, Pyongyang demanded an apology for and an immediate end to provocations, the lifting of the U.N. sanctions and an end to what it called exercises for a nuclear war. Claiming that the U.N. sanctions were misdirected and unjust, it demanded they be withdrawn. It said putting an end to them would be a “token of good will” toward North Korea.

South Korea and the United States, however, said that they would not give in to such demands. South Korean President Park Geun-hye reaffirmed that bad behavior would not be rewarded when she vowed to put an end to what she called a vicious circle of inter-Korean relations, in which Pyongyang threatened security, entered negotiations and secured concessions.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed with Park when he said, “Let me just make it clear, I have no desire as secretary of state and the president has no desire to do the same horse trade or go down the old road.” He added the bellicose rhetoric from the North was simply unacceptable by any standard.

Given the wide gap between the different conditions for dialogue, the chances are slim that either South Korea or the United States will sit down with North Korea for talks anytime soon. If there is any country that can provide a breakthrough to the impasse, it is China, which is a major source of food, finance and fuel for North Korea. As Kerry said, North Korea would collapse if it were not for Chinese assistance.

Kerry pinned his hopes on China, which he said indicated its willingness to work with the United States. Here again, patience will certainly be demanded, given that China, while calling for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, has rarely put pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions in the past.

What South Korea needs to do for the hapless companies with their factories in the North now is help arrange rescue loans and provide other types of assistance for them.