In a significant escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea has cancelled all agreements with the South, claiming that the two Koreas were on the "brink of a war".

The decision by Pyongyang to nullify all military and political accords, including declaring the maritime border between the countries "void", increases the prospect of an armed confrontation on the Peninsula, where over a million soldiers face each other along the Demilitarised Zone that divides the countries.

North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea blamed the South for Pyongyang's decision to sever all links, claiming that the agreements between the two countries were "dead documents".

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The neighbours last clashed militarily in June 2002, when they fought a deadly gun battle along the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea.

Pyongyang remains angry over South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's decision last year to cut the amount of economic aid given to the North, until progress was made on disarmament.

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