Seoul: North Korea threatened today to cut all ties with South Korea, citing what it called the hostile policy of the new conservative Seoul government.
The ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary that President Lee Myung-Bak's administration is "trampling" the two inter-Korean summit agreements in pursuit of confrontation and war with the North.
"If the South continues going down the path towards confrontation against us, the DPRK (North Korea) will have no alternative but to make a grave decision including the shutdown of all inter-Korean relations," it said.
"It is certain that inter-Korean relations cannot be normalised as long as extreme rightists, who pursue confrontation and war, control the puppet regime of the South."
The North has already cut almost all government to government exchanges. But civic and artistic groups from the South still visit the communist state and the Kaesong joint industrial complex north of the border is operating normally.
Lee's liberal predecessors practised a decade-long "sunshine" engagement policy with the North during which summits were held in 2000 and 2007. Critics said the tens of millions of dollars which Seoul spent on aid and cross-border projects brought little in return.
Lee took office in February and promised to take a firmer line, linking economic aid more closely to progress in the North's nuclear disarmament. He said he would review summit agreements reached with his predecessors.
Pyongyang reacted furiously, terming Lee a "traitor" and "US sycophant" and cutting almost all official ties. Relations soured further when soldiers shot dead a Seoul tourist at the Mount Kumgang resort in the North in July.
