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North Korea to Sever Ties With the South
SEOULNorth Korea said Tuesday it will cut off all ties to South Korea, going well beyond the penalties that Seoul imposed on it a day earlier for its apparent role in the sinking of a South Korean warship two months ago. The statement came several hours after North Korean accused South Korea of sending warships into its territorial waters, a claim the South immediately denied.North Korea's state news agency announced the move late Tuesday, well after the usual hours when it makes statements from the country's authoritarian government. The decision sharply escalates the tensions between the two countries in the aftermath of the March 26 sinking of South Korea's Cheonan warship. North Korea said it would expel all South Koreans from a joint industrial complex just inside the North where about 120 South Korean companies employ about 40,000 North Koreans.
North Korea also said it would ban South Korean ships and planes from its territorial waters and airspace, though that step means little since South Korean planes avoid the country and only ships involved in commerce with the North travel there. North Korea's state media said "dozens" of South Korea warships crossed the inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea over the past 10 days. The area, near where the South Korean patrol boat Cheonan sank on March 26, has long been disputed by North Korea. The statement showed that Pyongyang is intensely focused on the Yellow Sea boundary as part of its broader effort to secure money and security for its authoritarian government. As part of that effort, North Korea for two years has been trying to get South Korea to reverse its stance of linking aid to the North with nuclear disarmament. The maritime boundary is an area where North Korea can irritate the South Korean military and government without risk of involving many people and a wide conflict. And it's a place where Pyongyang feels economically constrained. On portions of its west coast, North Korean fishing vessels can only go out about five miles before reaching the inter-Korean border, limiting their ability to fish. In the announcement, North Korea warned of further, unspecified military action in the Yellow Sea. It didn't refer to the Cheonan sinking in the announcement. Through the years, North Korean military vessels have accompanied fishing boats around the sea border. Last year, North Korea built a rocket base on land that's capable of firing artillery into the border waters. It test-fired several hundred rounds of artillery from the new base in January. Earlier Tuesday, a defector group in Seoul said that North Korean officials told the country's citizens last week to prepare for confrontation with the South. The order was given on a closed-circuit cable radio system that is maintained by the government and is difficult for outsiders to monitor, said Hyun In-hye of the defector group North Korea Intellectual Solidarity. He said the group is in regular phone contact with people in North Korea. The North's authoritarian government has long told North Koreans that the country is at risk of invasion from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan. But last week's message said the South may use the Cheonan incident as a pretense for war, Ms. Hyun said. Posted by: 2010-05-25 |
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