North Korea halting all communications with South in row over leafleting

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
AP

North Korea is cutting all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates pressure on Seoul for failing to stop activists floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.

The North's Korean Central News Agency said it would be "the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with south Korea and get rid of unnecessary things".

KNCA said all cross-border communication lines would be cut off on Tuesday at noon local time.

In recent days, North Korea has increasingly expressed its anger over the leafleting by threatening to permanently shut down a liaison office with South Korea and a jointly run factory park, and to nullify a 2018 inter-Korean tension-reduction agreement.

The North Korean threats came amid a prolonged deadlock in its broader nuclear diplomacy with the US.