Seoul -North Korea said Monday it will carry through on its threat to suspend cross-border rail service, severely limiting the land border with the South, starting next month. A statement by the North's military carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said it would also expel South Korean personnel from the Kaesong industrial complex just inside its border, suspend all tours to Kaesong as well as halting rail traffic across the border starting December 1.
Monday's announcement is the "first step to cope with the prevailing grave situation" of Seoul's tough policy toward Pyongyang, the statement reported by Yonhap news agency said.
North Korea had warned two weeks ago that it would restrict overland passages across the inter-Korean border.
However, the operations of South Korean firms in Kaesong will continue as they should not be a "scapegoat" of the current tension, according to a separate letter North Korea sent to the firms, reported Yonhap.
As a result, traffic over the border will be limited, however the border crossing will not be completely closed, said a spokeswoman for the Unification Ministry in Seoul.
The communist state has recently stepped up verbal attacks against the South, repeatedly threatening to cut all ties.
Relationships between the two Koreas have cooled markedly since a conservative government took office in Seoul in February, pledging to link inter-Korean economic cooperation with the North's nuclear disarmament.
The two countries remain officially at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.
