The Office of the General Staff of the North Korean People’s

Army has announced that it is withdrawing all its military

safeguards that the North normally operates by in relation to

inter-Korean cooperation and exchanges.

The North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported

Thursday that the office issued a statement that it will shut

down military liaison offices on the western and eastern

border areas. The office said it will also begin examining

the possibility of blocking South Korean access to the

Gaeseong Industrial Complex.

The statement added that the North was taking the measure to

counter what it said were confrontational moves by the South.

The North reaffirmed its position that it will destroy any

loudspeakers playing propaganda broadcasts across the inter-

Korean border that Seoul has said it will operate.

The office also announced that it is scrapping inter-Korean

military agreements signed in June 2004 aimed at preventing

accidental military clashes near the inter-Korean border in

the Yellow Sea.