S. Korea condemns N. Korea’s move to block border

South Korea strongly condemned North Korea's move to cut off all roads and railways connected to South Korea as an act that spurns aspiration for unification by people in the two Koreas, Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday. The North said the measure would completely separate North Korea's territory from that of South Korea, referring to it as the North's "primary hostile state and invariable principal enemy." According to the Ministry of Unification, North Korea had not notified the South of its measure in advance, as it appears to want to avoid inter-Korean contact under its "two hostile states" stance. Earlier on Wednesday, North Korea's military said it will "permanently shut off and block the southern border" with South Korea by cutting off all roads and rail links with the South and building front-line defense structures. North Korea has so far installed landmines and removed streetlights along its side of part of inter-Korean land routes, and removed railway sleepers on the northern side of the two r ail links in a move to erase the legacy of inter-Korean exchange and cooperation. At a year-end party meeting in December, North Korean leader defined inter-Korean relations as those between "two states hostile to each other" and vowed not to seek reconciliation and unification with South Korea. Source: Kuwait News Agency