North Korea severs all ties with South Korea, both sides amp up propaganda

The government of North Korea today announced it would sever all ties with South Korea, further exacerbating conflict over accusations that the North sank a warship belonging to the South. North Korea’s state news agency said all communications between the countries would be cut, including a Red Cross border contact, and that various transportation links would also be blocked.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is in the region, and said yesterday that the March 26th naval attack by Pyongyang, in which 46 sailors died, would not go “unanswered.” The US and South Korea plan joint military exercises.

Snip from Guardian UK:

The South’s military resumed propaganda radio broadcasts across the border this morning after a six-year hiatus, with programmes airing news, western music and comparisons of the political and economic situations on the two parts of the peninsula. The psychological warfare will enrage the North, which has warned it will fire at any propaganda facilities in the demilitarised zone.

(Image from the Official Website of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)