(CNN) -- Saber rattling rose to new levels Monday on
the Korean Peninsula as Pyongyang officials "scrapped" the armistice
credited for nearly 60 years of uneasy peace and then failed to answer a
hotline phone.
"The Korean Armistice
Agreement is to be scrapped completely just from today," said a
spokesman for the North Korean military -- the Korean People's Army
Supreme Command -- according to Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party.
North Korea cited the
U.N. Security Council's unanimous passage Thursday of tougher sanctions
against Pyongyang for carrying out missile and nuclear tests.
North Korea declares 1953 armistice invalid
"The collective sanction
is precisely a declaration of war and an act of war against the DPRK,"
said the newspaper, using the initials of North Korea's formal name, the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
U.S.-South Korean drills
North Korea's
announcement came as military drills involving South Korea and the
United States were taking place. The exercises, called Key Resolve, are in conjunction with the Foal Eagle
joint exercises that began March 1 and are scheduled to last two
months. More than 3,000 U.S. forces are taking part in Key Resolve,
according to U.S. Forces Korea.
North Korea also has called the annual training exercises "an open declaration of a war."
"Under the cloak of the
UNSC, the U.S. seeks to realize its aggressive purpose against the DPRK
by threatening its right to existence as well as its sovereignty," the
newspaper continued. "What is graver is the fact that the U.S. cooked up
the resolution on sanction timing to coincide with the 'Key Resolve'
and 'Foal Eagle' joint military exercises."
The U.N. Command
notified the North Korean military on February 21 of the exercise dates,
noting they are annual joint exercises defensive in nature and not
related to current events on the Korean Peninsula.
In his inauguration
speech on Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se called the
security situation "very grave," South Korea's government-backed Yonhap
News Agency reported.
"The security situation
on the Korean Peninsula for now is very grave as the unpredictability
surrounding North Korea is rising following its third nuclear test," Yun
said. "However, my aim is to turn this era of confrontation and
mistrust into an era of trust and cooperation with North Korea."
Two weeks after her inauguration, President Park Geun-hye presided over her first cabinet meeting.
"If we are going to get
North Korea to give up its nuclear programs and make the right choice,
what is more important than anything else is to cooperate closely with
the international community," she said, according to Yonhap.
She ordered the
government to take measures to keep safe South Korean workers at a joint
industrial complex in the North Korean city of Kaesong and residents on
the border island of Yeonpyeong, which was targeted by the North Korean
artillery in 2010, according to her spokesman, Yonhap said.
In remarks delivered Monday at the Asia Society in
New York, national security adviser Tom Donilon said, "The United
States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state; nor will we stand
by while it seeks to develop a nuclear-armed missile that can target
the United States."
He added, "The
international community has made clear that there will be consequences
for North Korea's flagrant violation of its international obligations."
