North Korea says it would cut all communications lines with South Korea as the first step towards shutting down all contact with Seoul.
It stated that this is in retaliation for actions taken by defectors who have been sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.
Daily calls, which have been made to a liaison office located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, will cease from Tuesday.
State news agency KCNA made the announcement on Tuesday as Seoul also confirmed that Pyongyang had refused to receive calls from its liaison office after making the threat, Yonhap news agency reported quoting South Korea’s unification ministry.
The two states had set up the office to reduce tensions after talks in 2018.
“The liaison office attempted to call North Korea this morning, but the North did not answer,” the unification ministry said on Tuesday.
Yonhap also quoted South Korea’s defence ministry as saying North Korea also did not answer calls via military hotlines.
For several days, North Korea has lashed out at South Korea, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if South Korea did not stop defectors from sending leaflets and other material into North Korea.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because no peace agreement was reached when the Korean War ended in 1953.
The people of North Korea have “been angered by the treacherous and cunning behaviour of the South Korean authorities, with whom we still have lots of accounts to settle”, KCNA said.
The report accused South Korean authorities of irresponsibly allowing defectors to hurt the dignity of North Korea’s supreme leadership.
“We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay,” the state news agency reported.
