Korea

North Korea abrogates deals with South

North Korea abrogates deals with South
North Korea has canceled all agreements on non-aggression with South Korea and cut the hotline between Pyongyang and Seoul, following the UN approval of a new series of sanctions against the country.

The state-run Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said in a statement on Friday that North Korea “abrogates all agreements on non-aggression reached between the North and the South.”

Seoul and Pyongyang signed a non-aggression pact in 1991 to support the peaceful settlement of disputes and prevent accidental military clashes.

The CPRK stated that the pact would be canceled as of Monday, when North Korea also planned to scrap the 1953 armistice agreement that put an end to the three-year-long Korean War.

North Korea also “notifies the South side that it will immediately cut off the North-South hotline,” the committee said.

The communications channel was installed in the Demilitarized Zone in 1971.

On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution, drafted by the United States and China, against North Korea, tightening Pyongyang’s financial dealings and adding new names to the UN sanctions blacklist.

The CPRK condemned the new round of sanctions and said it was evidence that the United States and its “puppets” in the South were “hell-bent” on confrontation.

“North-South relations have gone so far beyond the danger line that they are no longer reparable and an extremely dangerous situation is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula where a nuclear war may break out right now,” the CPRK said.

North Korea has ordered the military to respond “mercilessly” to “even an inch” of intrusion into its territory.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that Pyongyang would launch a “preemptive” nuclear strike against the United States to defend itself in the event that Washington ignited a nuclear war.

“Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest,” the statement said.

Back to top button