North Korea’s decision comes days after the United States sanctioned leader, Kim Jong Un, and other officials over human rights abuses.
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Washington and Pyongyang do not have formal diplomatic relations, so the isolated kingdom’s United Nations mission has for years served as a channel for the two countries to communicate, especially in discussions to end North Korea’s illicit nuclear weapons programme.
North Korea and the USA remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Washington sided with the South, ended only with a truce. North Korea is banned under multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions from conducting any test using ballistic missile technology.
North Korea has said the stated reason for deploying the system was “absurd”, and claimed that its arsenal, including an intermediate-range ballistic missile programme, was for “self-defence”.
South Korea’s defense ministry said Tuesday that main components of an advanced USA missile defense system will be operated in a package at a US military base when deployed in South Korea. The first phase of “stage by stage” actions would be cutting off the NY contact channel, the report said.
“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.
Shortly after North Korea threatened a “physical response” to the deployment of a USA missile defence system in South Korea, Pyongyang announced another move likely to ratchet up tensions with the United States: severing its only diplomatic link with Washington at the United Nations in NY.
The forum “will allow to put an end to confrontation between compatriots in the North and South, will facilitate achieving peace and security on the Korean Peninsula”, North Korea said in an open letter. One is serving a 10-year prison term with hard labor while the other received 15 years.
The North’s actions could complicate US efforts to secure the release of at least two American citizens being held for alleged espionage, subversion and other anti-state activities.
The furious dictator then ordered the firing of a ballistic missile from a submarine.
Pyongyang said the “physical response” will take place the moment the time and location of THAAD have been confirmed.
The system is also opposed by Beijing and Moscow.
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A day after the USA announcement, North Korea lashed out, calling the move an “open declaration of war against DPRK” and “the worst crime that can never be pardoned”, according to state news agency KCNA.
