[UPDATES] Crusty Pyongyang fires missiles, freezes South Korean assests

By Park Sae-jin Posted : March 10, 2016, 09:15 Updated : March 10, 2016, 14:55

North Korea's state control center screen shows a rocket launch[Courtesy of Xinhua News]


North Korea went crusty Thursday, firing missiles into the sea and unveiling punitive steps to shatter inter-Korean economic cooperation and seize all South Korean assets in the isolated communist country.

Pyongyang vowed to take a series of "special" political, military and economic sanctions against South Korea, starting with the "complete liquidation" of all South Korean assets in the North. It also dumped economic cooperation and exchange accords signed by the two Koreas.

"From now, we declare that all agreements the two Koreas have made on economic cooperation and exchanges are invalid," a North Korean state committee in charge of cross-border affairs said in a statement published by the official KCNA news agency.

The statement slammed Seoul's decision to blacklist 38 North Korean officials and two foreigners as well as 30 organizations in response to tough sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council.

Seoul banned the entry of third-country vessels coming from North Korea from and advised its citizens not to visit North Korean restaurants abroad. Blacklisted people and organizations were banned from making financial and property transactions with South Korean banks.

In Thursday's statement, Pyongyang expressed resentment over the suspension of operations at the Kaesong joint industry complex, a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation and reconciliation.

Seoul shut the complex down on February 10 to cut off North Korea's remaining source of hard currency. Kaesong hosted about 120 South Korean firms employing some 53,000 North Korean workers.

The North's move came hours after North Korea fires two short-range missiles off its east coast in a show of force amid a tense military standoff over major joint military exercises by US and South Korean troops.

Sporadically, North Korea has fired multiple rocket launchers and short-range missiles into the sea, but it has been more belligerent, showing off its nuclear arsenal, since the United Nations Security Council approved the toughest sanctions in decades.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fumed at the new UN sanctions, ordering nuclear weapons to be ready for use at any time and vowing to step up the development of atomic bombs.

On Wednesday, Kim said North Korean scientists have miniaturized nuclear warheads successfully to fit on ballistic missiles.

Pyongyang has also threatened to attack Seoul and Washington with atomic bombs, condemning their joint military exercises, which have been under way south of the heavily militarized border, as a rehearsal for a nuclear war.

Military officials have described this year's exercises involving some 15,000 US troops and 290,000 South Korean troops as the biggest ever.

US and South Korean troops are testing a new operational scheme to prepare them for preemptive attacks against North Korea ahead of its possible invasion across the border.

Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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