Asia-Pacific

DPRK to scrap accord on preventing naval clashes with South Korea

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-27 19:08

PYONGYANG: The military of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced Thursday that it will scrap an inter-Korean agreement on preventing accidental naval clashes with South Korea.

The latest decision is one of the seven measures announced by Pyongyang in response to South Korean sanctions, the official KCNA reported.

The measures announced by the general staff of the DPRK also includes banning South Korean ships, planes and other vehicles from passing through the territorial waters, airspace and land, and "the people of the South Korean authorities" from entering the DPRK, said the KCNA.

All "the military safeguard measures" for the economic communication between the two sides will be abolished, the KCNA reported.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have flared after the Cheonan, a 1,200-ton warship with 104 crew members on board, sank on March 26 after an explosion, killing 46 sailors.

South Korea released the results of an investigation on May 20, accusing the DPRK of sinking the Cheonan in a torpedo attack. However, the DPRK firmly denied the charges and insists on sending its own inspectors to verify the evidence.

South Korea on Monday halted trade with the DPRK, and banned merchant ships of the north from entering South Korean waters, but exempted the jointly run Kaesong industrial estate just north of the border, and humanitarian aid for the north's children.

President Lee Myung-bak vowed that his country would resort to measures of self-defense in case of "further military provocation" by the DPRK and called for sanctions against Pyongyang.