N. Korea to cut communication channel with US
Print Edition
NORTH Korea said yesterday it has told the United States it will sever the only channel of communication between them — at the United Nations in New York — after Washington blacklisted leader Kim Jong Un last week for human rights abuses.
All matters related to the US, including the handling of American citizens detained by Pyongyang, will be conducted under its “wartime law,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.
The move is the latest escalation of tension with the country, which earlier yesterday threatened a “physical response” after the US and South Korea said they would deploy the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.
“As the United States will not accept our demand for the immediate withdrawal of the sanctions measure, we will be taking corresponding actions in steps,” KCNA said.
“As the first step, we have notified that the New York contact channel that has been the only existing channel of contact will be completely severed,” it said. “The Republic will handle all matters arising between us and the United States from now on under our wartime laws, and the matters of Americans detained are no exception to this.”
It was not clear how “wartime laws” would affect the handling of the two Americans detained. But North Korea has indicated in the past that wartime laws would mean that detainees will not be released on humanitarian grounds.
North Korea and the US remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Washington sided with South Korea, ended only with a truce.
The two Americans known to be detained in North Korea include Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March for trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan, according to North Korean state media. The other, Korean-American Kim Dong Chul, is serving a 10 year sentence for espionage.
North Korea said last week it was planning its toughest response to what it deemed a “declaration of war” by the US after Kim was sanctioned.
The US and South Korea said last Friday that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, anti-missile system will be used to counter North Korea’s growing nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.
“There will be physical response measures from us as soon as the location and time that the invasionary tool for US world supremacy, THAAD, will be brought into South Korea are confirmed,” North Korea’s military said yesterday.
“It is the unwavering will of our army to deal a ruthless retaliatory strike and turn (South Korea) into a sea of fire and a pile of ashes the moment we have an order to carry it out,” the statement carried by KCNA said.
North Korea frequently threatens to attack South Korea and US interests in Asia-Pacific.
South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun warned North Korea not to take “rash and foolish action.” Otherwise, he said, it would face “decisive and strong punishment from our military.”
A ministry official said selection of a site for THAAD could come “within weeks,” and the allies were working to have it operational by the end of 2017. It will be used by US Forces Korea “to protect alliance military forces,” South Korea and the US said on Friday. The US maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war.
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