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North Korea cuts military hotline with South | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
North Korea says it is cutting a military hotline with South Korea, amid high tension on the peninsula. | |
The hotline is used to facilitate the travel of South Korean workers to a joint industrial complex in Kaesong. | |
Pyongyang has been angered by fresh UN sanctions following its 12 February nuclear test and US-South Korea military drills. | |
In recent weeks its habitually fiery rhetoric has escalated, with multiple warnings issued. | |
On Tuesday, it said it had ordered artillery and rocket units into "combat posture" to prepare to target US bases in Hawaii, Guam and the US mainland. | |
It has also threatened a "pre-emptive" nuclear strike against the US in recent days and told the South it has scrapped the Korean War armistice agreement. | |
US Pentagon spokesman George Little said on Tuesday that North Korea's threats "followed a pattern designed to raise tensions" and that North Korea would "achieve nothing by these threats". | |
'No need' | |
North Korea has already cut both a Red Cross hotline and another used to communicate with the UN Command at Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone that divides the two Koreas. | |
The military hotline is used by the two sides to communicate over travel to the Kaesong joint industrial zone, inside North Korea. | |
"Under the situation where a war may break out any moment, there is no need to keep up North-South military communications," a senior North Korean military official was quoted by KCNA news agency as telling the South before the line was severed. | |
An inter-Korean air-traffic hotline also exists between the two sides. | |
The move came as South Korean President Park Geun-hye set out policies towards the North "designed to establish peace and a foundation for reunification by building and restoring trust". | |
"Without rushing and in the same way that we would lay one brick after another, based on trust, (we) will have to develop South-North relations step by step and create sustainable peace," Yonhap news agency quoted her as saying. | |
She has spoken in the past of a desire for more dialogue with North Korea but current tensions are obstructing movements to improve ties. | |
In a statement on Wednesday carried by KCNA, North Korea told Ms Park that a "wrong word" from her could entail "horrible disaster at a time when the North-South relations are being pushed to the lowest ebb". | |
Late on Tuesday, North Korean state-run media also reported that its top political bureau would soon hold a rare meeting to discuss "an important issue for victoriously advancing the Korean revolution". It did not specify the issue, or the date of the meeting. | |
Overnight, meanwhile, South Korea briefly placed a border military unit on its highest alert, in an indication of the heightened tensions. | |
The alert happened early on Wednesday after a South Korean soldier discovered a "strange object" at the border, military officials said. The alert prepares troops for a possible incursion from North Korea. | The alert happened early on Wednesday after a South Korean soldier discovered a "strange object" at the border, military officials said. The alert prepares troops for a possible incursion from North Korea. |
The soldier, who was at a military post in Hwacheon, in South Korea's north-eastern Gangwon province, threw a grenade at the object at around 02:30 local time (17:30 GMT), officials said. The alert was lifted at 09:20 local time. | The soldier, who was at a military post in Hwacheon, in South Korea's north-eastern Gangwon province, threw a grenade at the object at around 02:30 local time (17:30 GMT), officials said. The alert was lifted at 09:20 local time. |