North Korea has announced it is cutting off itschannel of dialogue with the US military and has issued a warning toJapan over a satellite launch as tension mounts on the Koreanpeninsula.
The North pulled out of regular meetings with the US-led UnitedNations Command and said it could be forced to take moremeasures to protest a massive US-South Korean military drill itregards as a nuclear war exercise, the North's official KoreanCentral News Agency (KCNA) said.
Ri Chan-Bok, North Korea's chief delegate to the generals'talks, the highest-level meetings between the two sides, said theNorth suspended contacts between liaison officers at the bordertruce village of Panmunjom.
KCNA did not specify what measure North Korea could take as regards thearmistice agreement signed at the end of the Korean War of 1950-1953and aimed at preventing an escalation in military tensions andavoiding armed clashes.
There was no immediate comment from the UNC, which said it mayrelease a statement later.
Thousands of American and South Korean troops backed by warshipsand planes are this month engaged in major war games that the Northhas branded 'preparations for a nuclear war.'
The communist North suspended economic and maritime talks withSeoul on Saturday, saying the move was retaliation for what it saidwas Seoul's high military state of alert as a US-led war eruptedagainst Iraq.
UN special envoy to North Korea Maurice Strong has urgedWashington and Pyongyang to hold talks as soon as possible, sayinghe sensed concern from Pyongyang that North Korea could be the nexttarget of US military action.
South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun on Wednesday said Iraq andNorth Korea are different issues that require different approaches.
In a separate dispatch, KCNA blasted Japan for the plannedlaunch of a spy satellite this Friday 'at a time when the United Stateshas designated it (North Korea) as the next target of its attackafter the ongoing Iraqi war.'
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman warned last week thatJapan's satellite launch would risk nullifying a joint pledge not totest ballistic missiles.
AFP