North Korea cuts off military hotline with South

North Korea has cut off a key military hotline with South Korea that allows cross-border travel to a jointly run industrial complex in the North, a move that ratchets up tension and puts the last major symbol of inter-Korean co-operation in jeopardy.

North Korea recently cut a Red Cross hotline with South Korea and another with the US-led UN command at the border between the Koreas, but there is still a hotline linking aviation authorities in the North and South.

North Korea's chief delegate to inter-Korean military made the announcement on Wednesday, in a statement sent to his South Korean counterpart. The hotline is important because the Koreas use it to communicate as hundreds of workers travel back and forth to the Kaesong industrial complex.

Officials in Seoul said more than 900 South Korean workers were in Kaesong on Wednesday. There was no immediate word about how cutting the communications link would affect their travel back home.

North Korea, angry over routine US-South Korean drills and recent UN sanctions punishing it for its recent nuclear test, has unleashed a torrent of threats recently, including vows to launch a nuclear strike against America.

It has also repeated its nearly two-decade-old threat to reduce Seoul to a "sea of fire".

Despite the rhetoric, outside weapons analysts have seen no proof that North Korea has mastered the technology needed to build a warhead small enough to mount on a missile.

The cutting of the hotline could be more significant if it affects travel by the workers at Kaesong.

Kaesong is operated in the North with South Korean money and knowhow and a mostly North Korean workforce. It provides a badly needed flow of hard currency to a country where many face food shortages.

In March 2009, North Korea cut off the military hotline with the South and kept 80 South Korean workers stranded in Kaesong for a day. Cross-border travel resumed after Pyongyang authorities approved it through a South Korean office in Kaesong.

The military hotline remained cut off for more than a week and was reconnected following the end of annual South Korean-US military drills.

The Guardian