Troops on both sides reportedly prepare for possible combat in wake of March 26 torpedo attack on South Korean warship.
Seoul, South Korea -- North Korea declared today that it would sever all communication and relations with Seoul as punishment for blaming it for the sinking of a South Korean warship.
The North also announced it would expel all South Koreans working at a joint factory park in the northern border town of Kaesong, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch monitored in Seoul today.
Tensions were rising on the divided Korean 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 South Korean waters.
A South Korean K1 tank fires today during an exercise to prepare for a possible surprise attack by North Korea, near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Yeoncheon, South Korea. South Korea resumed propaganda broadcasts into North Korea in response to a deadly torpedo attack that sank a South Korean warship, officials said today, amid a report that North Korea's leader ordered troops to be ready for combat.
North Korea struck back by declaring it would cut all ties with the South until President Lee Myung-bak leaves office. South Korean ships and airliners will be banned from passing through its territory and the North will resume its own psychological warfare, KCNA said.
Earlier, one Seoul-based monitoring agency reported that North Korea's leader ordered its 1.2 million-member 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 militarized border.
A team of international investigators, however, concluded last week that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore apart the Cheonan.