North Korea moves to cut all ties with South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea declared Tuesday it was cutting all ties to Seoul as punishment for blaming the communists for the sinking of a South Korean warship, plunging relations on the divided peninsula to their lowest point in a decade.

The announcement came a day after South Korea took steps that were seen as among the strongest it could take short of military action. Seoul said it would slash trade with the North and deny permission to its cargo ships to pass through South Korean waters. It also resumed a propaganda offensive, including blaring Western music into the North and dropping leaflets by balloon.

North Korea said it was cutting all ties with the South until President Lee Myung-bak leaves office in early 2013, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch monitored in Seoul.

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification said it would expel all South Korean government officials working at a joint industrial park in the border town of Kaesong, and South Korean ships and airliners would be banned from passing through its territory.

The North's committee said it would start "all-out counterattacks" against the South's psychological warfare, and called its moves "the first phase" of punitive measures against Seoul, suggesting more action could follow.

Earlier yesterday, one Seoul-based monitoring agency reported that North Korea's leader ordered its 1.2 million-member military to get ready for combat. South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the report. North Korea often issues fiery rhetoric and regularly vows to wage war against South Korea and the United States.

South Korea wants to take North Korea before the UN Security Council over the sinking.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who got a cool response in Beijing to the U.S. appeal for supporting international action against the North, visits South Korea on Wednesday.