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N Korea cuts contact with South
03/04/2008 12:18 - (SA)
Seoul - North Korea announced on Thursday it was suspending all dialogue with South Korea and closing the border to Seoul officials, its toughest action in a week of growing cross-border tensions.
The North said it went ahead with its threatened retaliatory action after Seoul refused to apologise for recent remarks by its military chief.
"Our military does not engage in empty talk," the Korean Central News Agency said, disregarding an appeal from South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak for "straightforward" talking to calm the atmosphere.
The agency was disclosing a message delivered earlier to Seoul by the North's chief delegate to inter-Korean military talks, Lieutenant-General Kim Yong-Chol.
Kim last weekend vowed to cut dialogue unless the South apologised for remarks by its new chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), General Kim Tae-Young.
The North interpreted these as authorising a pre-emptive military strike.
Tougher line on relations
Seoul's defence ministry on Wednesday said the North was twisting the JCS chief's remarks and told it to stop raising tensions. The North on Thursday dismissed that response as "excuses".
"The South's military authorities... will never avoid responsibility for suspending all North-South dialogue and blocking the (border) passage," KCNA said.
Lee, a conservative who took office on February 25, has angered the North by adopting a tougher line on relations.
His liberal predecessors had practised a decade-long "sunshine" engagement policy, under which aid and investment worth billions of dollars flowed northwards and cross-border exchanges expanded hugely.
Lee says he will link economic aid to the North's progress in nuclear disarmament and raise its widely criticised human rights policy.
- AFP
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