DPRK to close land border with South Korea from December
12/11/2008 17:05
The military of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was
authorized to cut off all land borders with South Korea from December, the
official KCNA news said today.
"Upon the authorization, we officially inform
the south side that the actual crucial measure taken by the KPA (DPRK army) to
strictly restrict and cut off all the overland passages through the Military
Demarcation Line will take effect from December 1," said the KCNA.
The report
quoted a military official as saying that the DPRK accused the South Korean
authorities of failing to live up to the two joint declarations signed by the
two countries' top leaders in 2000 and 2007 respectively. The confrontation
kicked up by the South was "going beyond the danger level," he added.
The
KCNA didn't clarify if the measure would affect day-to-day tourism to Kaesong
city and the operation of the north-south cooperative industrial complex in
Kaesong, which lies just north of the frontier.
Relations between the two
countries technically still at war have frayed since February when conservative
President Lee Myung-bak took office pledging to get tough with Pyongyang. The
DPRK later responded by threatening to cut off all contacts.
Xinhua
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