The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Seoul

Secretive North Korea said on Monday it would all but seal its border with the South a week before heading into talks with its neighbor and other regional powers which are pressing it to give up nuclear weapons.

The tension on the long-divided Korean peninsula has been escalating since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in February promising to invest heavily in the impoverished North on condition it moves to end development of an atomic arsenal. North Korea's KCNA news agency said the border closure was the first step "to be taken in connection with the evermore undisguised anti-DPRK (North Korea) confrontational racket of the south Korean puppet authorities."

But the latest move appeared to be more saber-rattling than substance as the North will continue to let in some South Koreans to manage an industrial zone just across the border in what is the one significant economic relationship it has with the South.