North Korea is warning it will close off its border to the South, as of
December 1. VOA's Kurt Achin reports from Seoul.
North Korean military
officials read the warning over the telephone, Wednesday, to their South Korean
counterparts.
The statement - carried by the North Korean central news
agency - threatens to "severely restrict or cut off" border crossings. Pyongyang
accuses South Korea of "going beyond the danger level, despite repeated
warnings."
North Korea has warned the South on several recent occasions -
urging Seoul to stop groups from launching balloon-borne leaflets which
criticize the North's leader, Kim Jong Il. Pyongyang also accuses the South of
failing to uphold previous agreements.
South Korean Unification Ministry
Spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun called for the two Korea's to sit down and talk. He calls
the border closure warning "regrettable" and says, if North Korea follows
through, there will be a negative impact on inter-Korean relations.
North
and South Korea remain technically at war. The North invaded the South in 1950.
Only a temporary armistice halted three years of fighting.
Since a
historic 2000 summit, North-South border crossings have been more frequent -
especially to support a South Korean-funded joint industrial zone in the North.
It remains unclear whether North Korea will prevent South Korean managers and
raw materials from reaching the zone, Kaesong.
Kim Seong-bae, an analyst
with the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, says he thinks a
full border closure would be a mistake on the North's part.
He says
sealing the border completely would amount to shutting down the Kaesong complex,
which he says would entail huge expense and inconvenience for the North. He says
the border move could also sour the atmosphere for improvements in the North's
relations with the incoming American administration.