N. Korea cuts all hotlines with South amid rising tensions
RT.com
12 Feb, 2016
North Korea has severed all communication hotlines with its South Korean neighbor amid a spike in tensions following Pyongyang’s recent rocket launch. Seoul says it will start talks with the US as early as next week on the deployment of a new missile defense system.
All emergency hotlines connecting the two rival states were cut on Thursday, following the South’s decision to stop operations at the joint industrial complex in Kaesong, Seoul’s Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said on Friday.
Meanwhile, South Korea will begin talks with Washington on the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system as early as next week, a South Korean defense official told Reuters.
Russia and China have expressed concerns about the potential deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). Russian Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Timonin said that deploying the anti-ballistic missile system will not help solve the North’s nuclear problem.
“Russia thinks that deployment of such systems in the Republic of Korea [South Korea] hardly facilitates strengthening peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and brings the resolution of the nuclear problem,” he told a press conference last week.
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