North Korea again blamed South Korea Monday for causing the suspension of a joint industrial complex in its border town of Gaeseong.

The buck-passing comes two weeks after Pyongyang pulled out all of its 53,000 laborers from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, which is located just north of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, sending it to a grinding halt.

The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), said in an article that no matter what excuses and commotions are raised by Seoul, it cannot deflect blame for the deterioration of conditions at the industrial complex.

The daily newspaper monitored in Seoul said efforts to disrupt normal operations at Gaeseong actually became more blatant under the new administration, and that the impasse is the result of criminal acts committed by the South.

"By intentionally fueling tensions, (the South) destroyed the peaceful atmosphere needed to sustain the complex," the paper said.

It lashed out at past South Korean media reports that claimed Pyongyang will never give up the complex because it is a cash cow for the impoverished, saying such views can only be seen as serious provocations that insult the dignity of the country.

Comments made by the military about a contingency plan to rescue South Korean workers from the complex in the event they are held hostage, is an affront and a means to draw in U.S. special forces into the operations that could trigger a wider conflict on the Korean Peninsula, the paper said.

The latest attack by the WPK media outlet comes after Kim Yang-gon, a member of the North Korea's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee, issued a formal statement on April 8 saying that laborers were not permit to report to work. The announcement came less than a week after the North banned South Korea personnel and cargo from entering Gaeseong.

Since then, the North barred two separate visits by South Korean businessmen from the complex who wanted to deliver food and speak with workers at Gaeseong. Pyongyang has never barred South Koreans from leaving Gaeseong.

The work stoppage is seen as the worst development for the complex that first started churning out products in late 2004.

Gaeseong remained opened and unaffected even when Seoul blamed Pyongyang for the sinking of one of its warships near the sea demarcation line with the North in March 2010, which resulted in the loss of 46 sailors. Operations were neither influenced by the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island eight months later.

Gaeseong is home to 123 South Korean factories that use cheap North Korean labor to produce goods that are brought back south of the DMZ.

It is the only viable economic link between the two Koreas at present, with Seoul officially making clear it wants operations to resume at the complex.

At present, there are just 190 South Koreans at Gaeseong, with two more to return during the day. Normally the complex is home to about 850 South Korean business managers, workers and members of the Gaeseong Industrial District Management Committee, that are staffed by personnel from the two Koreas. (Yonhap News)