N Korea to sever all relations with South

NORTH KOREA declared yesterday that it would sever all communication and relations with Seoul as punishment for blaming the North for the sinking of a South Korean warship two months ago.

North Korea also announced it would expel all South Korean government officials working at a joint industrial park in the northern border town of Kaesong, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Tensions were rising on the divided peninsula in the wake of an investigation report blaming North Korea for a torpedo attack that sank the Cheonan warship on March 26, killing 46 South Korean sailors.

South Korea’s military restarted psychological warfare operations – including blaring radio broadcasts into the North and placing loudspeakers at the border to blast out propaganda – to punish the North for the provocation. The South is also slashing trade and denying permission to North Korean cargo ships to pass through its waters.

North Korea struck back by declaring it would cut all ties with the South until President Lee Myung-bak leaves office in early 2013. South Korean ships and airliners will be banned from passing through its territory and the North will start “all-out counterattacks” against the South’s psychological warfare, the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification said.

The committee called the moves “the first phase” of punitive measures against South Korea, suggesting more action could follow.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it had no immediate comment on the North Korean statement. However, spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo noted the statement referred only to eight South Korean officials staying at the Kaesong complex, not some 800 South Korean managers and workers.

Yonhap news agency said that suggested the North had no intention of completely shutting down the Kaesong park, as South Korea also decided to keep the complex intact.

Earlier, one Seoul-based monitoring agency reported that North Korea’s leader ordered its 1.2 million-strong military to get ready for combat. South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the report.

The North flatly denies involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, one of the South’s worst military disasters since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, and has warned that retaliation would mean war. It has threatened to destroy any propaganda facilities installed at the heavily militarised border.

A team of international investigators, however, concluded last week that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore apart the Cheonan.

North Korea is already subject to various UN-backed sanctions following earlier nuclear and missile tests. The steps taken by Seoul were seen as among the strongest it could take short of military action.

The US has thrown its full support behind South Korea’s moves and they are planning two major military exercises off the Korean peninsula in a display of force intended to deter future aggression by North Korea, the White House said.

In coming weeks, South Korea also will install dozens of loudspeakers and towering electronic billboards along the heavily armed land border to send messages urging communist soldiers to defect to the South.

Yesterday, North Korean state media cited the powerful National Defence Commission as saying the North’s soldiers and reservists were bracing to launch a “sacred war” against South Korea.