HONG KONG (CNN) -- The North Korean army has declared invalid
the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953, the
official newspaper of the country's ruling Workers' Party said
Monday. Since last week, North Korea had been threatening to
scrap the armistice after the U.N. Security Council passed
tougher sanctions against it in response to its February 12
nuclear test. On Monday, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported
that the Supreme Command of North Korea's army had done so. "The
U.S. has reduced the armistice agreement to a dead paper," the
newspaper said. North Korea also cut off direct phone links with
South Korea at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom,
according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. The phone line
was the emergency link for quick, two-way communication between
the two sides. The armistice agreement, signed in 1953, ended
the three-year war between North and South Korea in a truce.
Since the two sides remain technically at war, it remains to be
seen whether the invalidati