In a series of angry gestures the North also announced the expulsion of South Korean workers from a joint industrial zone, the last major cooperative project between the two nations. The move came after months of deteriorating relations between Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, and the Government of Lee Myung Bak, the South Korean President.
“The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea . . . formally declares that from now on it will put into force the resolute measures to totally freeze the inter-Korean relations, totally abrogate the agreement on non-aggression between the North and the South and completely halt the inter-Korean co-operation,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. “There is no need to show any mercy or patience for such confrontation maniacs, sycophants and traitors and wicked warmongers as the Lee Myung Bak group.”
The day after imposing a trade freeze with Pyongyang the South said that it would restart propaganda broadcasts by radio and loudspeaker across the tense land border with the North. In a display of combined military strength joint exercises between South Korean and US forces are planned this week.
“These days the South side is perpetrating undisguised intrusions into the maritime boundary line of our side in the waters of the West Sea of Korea, driving the situation there to the brink of explosion,” KCNA said. “Should the South side’s intrusions into the territorial waters of our side continue, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will put into force practical military measures to defend its waters.”
The South Korean Defence Ministry denied any incursions but the two sides do not agree on where their maritime border lies. In the 60 years since the outbreak of the Korean War the North has frequently made bellicose threats against the South, but the inferiority of its military compared with the joint US-South Korean forces means that it is unlikely to launch an all-out war.
The current situation represents a high point in recent tensions. Since the North’s apparent sinking of a South Korean naval ship last month, years of slow and often painful diplomatic progress have been all but wiped out.
There was no official confirmation of a report that Mr Kim had put his million-strong military on combat readiness. North Korea Intellectual Solidarity, a group of North Korean defectors in Seoul, said that the alert was ordered last Thursday when an international investigatory team issued a report accusing Pyongyang of sinking the corvette Cheonan, with the loss of 46 lives.
Seoul has responded to the attack by cutting off trade with the North and banning its ships from using its sea lanes. The Korea Institute for National Unification, which is supported by the South Korean Government, said that the sanctions would cost Pyongyang $250 million (£173 million) a year.
The South announced that it would reinstall scores of propaganda loudspeakers and towering electronic billboards along the heavily armed land border to send messages inviting defectors. The North will no doubt respond by restoring its own batteries of deafening loudspeakers and huge billboards bearing insulting slogans.
President Medvedev of Russia telephoned Mr Lee to urge restraint on all sides. Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, said that he expected the UN Security Council to take action against North Korea, but the indications were that China would veto any but the mildest condemnation.
Jiang Yu, a Chinese government spokeswoman, said that peace and stability on the peninsula and in the region were in the interests of all parties. China would not tolerate any actions that would disturb that peace. “We hope that all parties concerned stay calm and exercise restraint,” she added.
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