South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Friday vowed to deal strongly with its communist neighbor’s provocations as tensions on the Korean peninsula rose sharply with the North continuing its belligerent posture despite fresh rounds of U.N. sanctions for its last month nuclear test.
“North Korea pressed ahead with a nuclear test and long-range missile development, and is threatening to nullify the Armistice Agreement,” Park said at a joint commissioning ceremony for graduating military cadets at the country’s Gyeryongdae military headquarters.
“I will deal strongly with North Korea’s provocations,” she was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as telling the cadets.
In an apparent reference to the impoverished North, Park said any country was bound to face “self-destruction” if it concentrated only on strengthening its military power when its people were starving.
Meanwhile, North Korea threatened to sever its emergency hot line with Seoul and nullify non-aggression agreements between the two countries.
“The DPRK (North Korea) abrogates all agreements on non-aggressions reached between the North and the South,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “The DPRK will close the Panmunjom liaison channel between the North and the South,” the statement added.
On the decision to discontinue the hot-line link, it said “this channel can no longer perform its mission due to the prevailing grave situation. It will immediately cut off the North-South hot line.”
The hot line installed in the truce village separating the two countries was suspended in 2008 due to rising tensions over human rights issues in the North and in 2010 after the North’s sinking of a South Korean Navy ship.
by RTT Staff Writer
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