North Korea cuts military hotline with South

SEOUL 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. Pyongyang made an announcement on Wednesday in Seoul at a meeting of the two countries’ military delegations. North Korea cuts military hotline with South North Korea recently cut a Red Cross hotline with South Korean and another with the U.S.-led UN command at the border between the Koreas, but there's still a hotline linking aviation authorities in the North and South, AP has reported. The hotline is important because the Koreas use it to communicate as hundreds of workers travel back and forth to the Kaesong industrial complex. South Korean officials say more than 900 South Korean workers were in Kaesong on Wednesday. Cutting the hotline was the latest in a series of threats and actions that have raised tensions on the Korean peninsula since the North's long-range rocket launch in December and its nuclear test last month. Both events triggered UN sanctions that infuriated Pyongyang. Western countries and the UN believe that the alleged satellite launch was in fact a long-range rocket test. North Korea has nuclear weapons and it has performed three nuclear tests so far despite international bans. Pyongyang claims that the U.S. and South Korea are planning on invading North Korea. The Pentagon on Tuesday condemned North Korea’s threat that it would target U.S. military bases and stated that the U.S. was ready to “respond to any contingency”. (Beta/AP) Beta

North Korea cuts military hotline with South

North Korea recently cut a Red Cross hotline with South Korean and another with the U.S.-led UN command at the border between the Koreas, but there's still a hotline linking aviation authorities in the North and South, AP has reported.

The hotline is important because the Koreas use it to communicate as hundreds of workers travel back and forth to the Kaesong industrial complex.

South Korean officials say more than 900 South Korean workers were in Kaesong on Wednesday.

Cutting the hotline was the latest in a series of threats and actions that have raised tensions on the Korean peninsula since the North's long-range rocket launch in December and its nuclear test last month.

Both events triggered UN sanctions that infuriated Pyongyang.

Western countries and the UN believe that the alleged satellite launch was in fact a long-range rocket test.

North Korea has nuclear weapons and it has performed three nuclear tests so far despite international bans.

Pyongyang claims that the U.S. and South Korea are planning on invading North Korea.

The Pentagon on Tuesday condemned North Korea’s threat that it would target U.S. military bases and stated that the U.S. was ready to “respond to any contingency”.