PYONGYANG, North Korea, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- North Korea said Friday it was ending military and political agreements with South Korea and declared the countries' western sea border invalid.
The announcement comes just days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said he did not want to see renewed "tension emerge on the Korean Peninsula" in a meeting with a visiting Chinese official, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
The North's latest tension-creating actions come ahead of major political events in the country, including Kim's birthday in a few weeks and parliamentary elections in March. In recent weeks, North Korea issued several statements vowing to retain its nuclear weapons program until the United States removes military threats against the country
"The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the North and the South in the past to dead documents," North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which handles inter-Korean affairs, speaking of the Lee Myung-bak administration in Seoul. "Under such a situation it is self-evident that there is no need for (North Korea) to remain bound to those North-South agreements."
The statement said all points "concerning the issue of putting an end to the political and military confrontation between the north and the south will be nullified ... (and) the points on the military boundary line in the West Sea stipulated in its appendix will be nullified."
Any attempt to violate the sea border will be met with countermeasures, the South Korean defense ministry said.
"Our government expresses deep regret to North Korea," said Kim Ho-nyoun, a spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry.
