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North Korea Says It Will Cut Communication Channels With South

Associated Press

   SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - North Korea said Tuesday it will cut off all
   communication channels with South Korea as it escalates its pressure on
   the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang
   leaflets across the border.

   The North Korean warning came as relations between the two Koreas have
   been strained amid a prolonged deadlock in broader nuclear diplomacy
   between Pyongyang and Washington. Some experts say North Korea may be
   deliberately creating tensions to bolster internal unity or launch
   bigger provocation in the face of persistent U.S.-led sanctions.

   The North's Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that all
   cross-border communication lines will be cut off at Tuesday noon. It
   said it will be "the first step of the determination to completely shut
   down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary
   things."

   "The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against
   (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy
   responsibility with nasty excuses," it said. "They should be forced to
   pay dearly for this."

   Since last week, North Korea has increasingly expressed its anger over
   the leafleting by threatening to permanently shut down a liaison office
   with South Korea and a jointly run factory park, as well as nullify a
   2018 inter-Korean tension-reduction agreement. North Korean citizens
   have also staged a series of mass anti-Seoul public rallies, something
   the North typically organizes in times of tensions with the outside
   world.

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