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N Korea suspends dialogue, closes border with South

North Korea announced yesterday it was suspending all dialogue with South Korea and closing the border to Seoul officials, its toughest action in a week of growing cross-border tensions.

Pyongyang said it went ahead with its threatened retaliatory action after Seoul refused to apologize for recent remarks by its military chief.

“Our military does not engage in empty talk,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, disregarding an appeal from South Korean President Lee Myung-bak for “straightforward” talking to calm the atmosphere.

The agency was disclosing a message delivered earlier to Seoul by the North's chief delegate to inter-Korean military talks, Lieutenant-General Kim Yong-chol.

Kim last weekend vowed to cut dialogue unless Seoul apologized for remarks by its new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), General Kim Tae-young.

The North interpreted these as authorizing a preemptive military strike.

Seoul's defense ministry on Wednesday said the North was twisting the JCS chief's remarks and told it to stop raising tensions. The North yesterday dismissed that response as “excuses.”

“The South's military authorities … will never avoid responsibility for suspending all North-South dialogue and blocking the [border] passage,” KCNA said.

Lee, a conservative who took office on Feb. 25, has angered the North by adopting a tougher line on relations.

His liberal predecessors had practiced a decade-long “sunshine” engagement policy, under which aid and investment worth billions of dollars flowed northwards and cross-border exchanges expanded hugely.

Lee said he would link economic aid to the North's progress in nuclear disarmament and raise its human-rights policy.

A six-nation denuclearization deal is stalled by disagreements over the North's promised declaration of all its nuclear activities.

“What the new government wants is a more straightforward dialogue between South and North Korea … we want North Korea to open its mind for sincere dialogue,” Lee said earlier yesterday, his first comments since Pyongyang this week labelled him a traitor and US sycophant.

Analysts say the North may be testing Lee's resolve and trying to sway opinion against his conservative party in next week's parliamentary election.
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