Pyongyang will no longer deal with Seoul and is severing two of the few remaining inter-Korean dialogue channels, North Korea’s supreme decision-making organization said yesterday.

In a statement reported by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, the National Defense Commission, chaired by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, said it will cut military communication lines along the East Sea coast and shut down a liaison office on Mount Kumgang.

It said these are the first steps and more will follow.

“We will enter a full-scale offensive designed to put to an end the maneuvers by the traitor Lee Myung-bak and its thuggish clan to confront the Republic [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea],” the NDC spokesman said in a statement, referring to the South Korean president.

“The full-scale offensive by our military and the people will be merciless,” the statement said.

The verbal threats come as the two Koreas remain at odds over the two provocations directed at the South last year - the sinking of the warship Cheonan, for which the North denies any involvement, and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. Seoul has refused to put the events behind it before an acknowledgement or apology from the North.

Late last month, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited South Korea after a trip to Pyongyang with a message from Kim that he was willing to have an inter-Korean summit.

Seoul regards it as a showy gesture lacking sincerity and is calling for the North to respond to its call for inter-Korean talks that it made in January through direct and official diplomatic channels.

The remarks yesterday are also being looked at to determine whether they hint at a downshift in the North’s will to economically engage the South following apparent growing economic ties with China.

Last Friday, Kim Jong-il finished a trip to China, the third in a year, which was observed by some to have taken economic ties between the two communist allies to a closer level.

In the statement, the NDC also reiterated its warning against the psychological warfare tactics of the South, including border-crossing anti-regime leaflets and reconfirmed its threat of sudden strikes from where the leaflets are sent.


By Moon Gwang-lip [joe@joongang.co.kr]