DPRK to sever hot line with S. Korea, nullify non-aggression pacts
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E-mail Xinhua, March 8, 2013
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Friday it will sever the emergency hot line with Seoul and nullify their non-aggression agreements.
"The DPRK abrogates all agreements on nonaggressions reached between the North and the South," the country's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said in a statement carried by the official news agency KCNA.
"The DPRK will close the Panmunjom liaison channel between the North and the South," it added.
The hot line installed in a truce village separating the two countries had been suspended for nearly 10 months from 2008 to 2009.
Accusing the South and the United States of escalating tensions and igniting a war against the DPRK, the statement said, "a dangerous situation is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula, where a nuclear war may break out right now."
Friday's harsh rhetoric came two days after the DPRK's supreme military command announced it would scrap the Korean War Armistice Agreement on March 11 when South Korea and the United States start a joint military drill.
The two Koreas are still technically at war since no peace agreement was signed.
Top leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday the DPRK military was ready to fight an all-out war, the KCNA reported two hours after the United Nations unanimously adopted a resolution to punish the country for its underground nuclear test on Feb. 12.
