S Korea President Park responds to North's provocations

SEOUL March 8 (agencies): South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned North Korea of firm retaliation against any military strikes or other provocations after Pyongyang said Friday it would no longer be bound by non-aggression agreements between the countries. A day after the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea in response to its Feb. 12 nuclear test, the North said it would sever its main hotline with the South and scrap agreements on avoiding conflict, including a pact reached in 1991 that calls for the peaceful settlement of disputes and avoidance of accidental military clashes. I will deal strongly with North Korea's provocations," Ms. Park said in a speech at a graduation ceremony for military cadets in Gyeryongdae, central South Korea. North Korea's latest round of brinkmanship adds to a barrage of recent invective directed at annual military drills in the South and sanctions imposed by the U.N. in response to the North's ballistic rocket launch in January and nuclear test last month. On Tuesday, North Korea said that it would on March 11 withdraw from the armistice agreement that suspended Korean War hostilities in 1953, although it has claimed to have withdrawn several times previously. North Korea has also threatened the U.S. with nuclear attack, although analysts say it doesn't have the ability to carry such a threat out. Officials and analysts in Seoul caution that while North Korea's threats likely ring hollow, the isolated state has previously staged provocations shortly after new presidents take office in the South. Ms. Park was inaugurated on Feb. 25.