North Korea and the United States remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Washington sided with the South, ended only with a truce.
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Last week, Seoul and Washington announced that they had reached an agreement to deploy a THAAD battery here to better cope with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threats.
Beijing strongly opposes deployment of the system, which uses a powerful radar to scan all of North Korea and some Chinese territory.
USA administration officials announced last week that the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jon Un, is the ultimately responsible for North Korea’s notorious abuses of human rights.
There is also concern that THAAD could drive China and Russian Federation to take a softer stand on maintaining sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear program and continued missile tests.
An announcement in the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that ties between the NY office and the government of the United States would be “completely severed”, KCNA asserted in the announcement of the DPRK’s change of policy that all dialogue would come under “the wartime law of the DPRK and the issue of detained Americans is no exception …”
“Because the United States did not accept our demand that the sanctions be retracted, we are taking concrete actions one by one, the first of which is to completely cut off the NY channel of communication, the only official point of contact that has existed between the two sides”, KCNA said, citing the notice. This is needed because the countries don’t have diplomatic ties and their animosities have deepened because of the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
US-State Department spokesman John Kirby said the announcement by North Korea is “obviously is not doing anything to ease tensions”. The comments are the first from North Korea regarding the new missile defense system, reports CNN.
The deployment will be completed by the end of next year and will be able to cover up to two thirds of South Korea from missiles fired by North Korea.
The South Korean military is also planning to increase its short-range Patriot missile defense system to protect vulnerable areas closer to the border. He also reiterated a call for the Americans to be freed.
North Korea in the past released or deported American detainees only after high-profile Americans visited the country on their behalf. The allies said they picked Seongju because it is in a mountainous region that is sparsely populated and it already has an air defense artillery unit.
North Korea’s military on Monday threatened to retaliate against the deployment of the system with a “physical response” once its location and time of installation were decided. North Korean media have demanded Bae “commit suicide” for writing the book.
South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said the countries agreed to place the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, system in Seongju, a mountainous region more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Seoul.
South Korea’s Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho told parliament on Wednesday that Seoul was making contingency plans in case China took action in response to the deployment, said Yonhap news agency. The statement also carried one of the North’s favorite, oft-repeated threats: To turn Seoul into a “sea of fire”. It has regularly warned it would do that since 1994.
The recent ruling by an global tribunal on the South China Sea issue is likely to pose yet another diplomatic conundrum for South Korea as a regional territorial dispute could drive up tension between China and the US, two countries that Seoul maintains close ties with.
The two Koreas are divided along the world’s most heavily fortified border.
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Talks between the U.S. and the tyrannical North Korean regime are brokered by United Nations, including discussions over USA citizens held by the Asian state.
