N. Korea outlines border closing

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- North Korean officials Monday detailed plans to close its border with South Korea as a protest of the South's plans to tie investment to nuclear disarmament.

The Dec. 1 closure would cut off a tourism project and a little-used train service but would keep open an industrial park where South Korean companies employ thousands of North Koreans, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The decision to close the border came after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took a harder line on economic development in the North in light of its authoritarian practices, closed economy and human rights violations and linked economic investments to North Korea's nuclear disarmament, the Journal said.

South Korean government officials met to discuss North Korea's announcement but issued no statement.

Despite the border closing, North Korea will participate in the diplomatic process to denuclearize the peninsula, the Journal said. Delegations from the six countries -- North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- said they would meet Dec. 8, their first joint session since July.

As part of the effort to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, South Korea said Monday it would deliver steel as promised in exchange for North Korea's shutdown of a power plant fuel for the weapons is produced.