MOSCOW (Sputnik) — North Korea on Thursday declared all agreements on economic cooperation and exchanges with the South invalid, according to a statement issued by Pyongyang’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea.
"From this moment, we will view all agreements which the two Koreas have made on economic cooperation and exchanges as invalid," the Committee's spokesman said, as quoted by The Korean Times newspaper.
According to the newspaper, such a decision is connected with a new package of economic sanctions on the part of South Korea. The decision on the termination of all economic agreements means that virtually all South Korean companies' assets and funds will be confiscated in favor of the North.
The news comes a month after South Korea’s Unification Ministry announced that it was suspending operations at the Kaesong industrial complex, run jointly by North and South Korea, in response to Pyongyang’s recent nuclear bomb test and satellite launch.
Tensions over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs escalated after Pyongyang said on January 6 that it had successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test and put a satellite into orbit on February 7, violating UN Security Council resolutions and triggering condemnation from the international community in both cases.
