Pyongyang suspends last link with South

North Korea suspended its sole remaining major project with the South after weeks of threats against the United States and South Korea, as Russian president Vladimir Putin said any nuclear conflict could make Chernobyl look like a fairy tale.

Reclusive North Korea’s decision to all but close the Kaesong industrial park coincided with speculation that it will carry out some sort of provocative action — another nuclear weapons test or missile launch — in what has become one of the most serious crises on the peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Tension has been rising since the UN imposed new sanctions against the North in response to its third test of a nuclear weapon in February. Pyongyang has been further angered by weeks of joint military exercises by South Korean and US forces and threatened both countries with nuclear attack.