North Korea Cuts Some Links with South

26 May 2010

Officers from the United Nations Command inspect a broken section of what Seoul claims to be a North Korean torpedo displayed at South Korea's Defense Ministry building after it was salvaged near the disputed sea border, 25 May 2010.

North Korea has begun to freeze ties with the South, which already halted most trade with Pyongyang in retaliation for the sinking of a South Korean warship. The North has denied responsibility for the attack on the vessel and is accusing the South of launching a "smear campaign" against it.

Pyongyang has expelled eight South Korean government officials from a joint factory park in the North. And, it is threatening to block what little cross-border traffic exists.

The Unification Ministry in Seoul says hundreds of South Korean managers and other workers from the South were allowed to enter the industrial complex in the west coast Kaesong border city, Wednesday.

But ministry spokesman Chun Hae Sung tells reporters North Korea quickly acted on other aspects of its threat to cut all communications ties with the South.

He says Pyongyang Wednesday halted contact between the Red Cross delegations in the truce village, Panmunjom, and the North Korean Navy contacted the South to inform it that all marine communications between the two Korea's are now cut.

Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated steadily since the Cheonan, a South Korean naval vessel in the Yellow Sea, exploded a month ago, killing 46 crew members. An international investigation concluded last week that the coastal patrol warship was hit by a North Korean torpedo.