DHAKA: South Korean president Park Geun Hye on Saturday ordered the military to boost border security to protect the country against potential provocations by North Korea, unswayed by Pyongyang’s latest peace overture.

Park’s orders followed the North’s surprise offer on Thursday for an end to ‘all acts of provoking and slandering’ from January 30 and its call for steps to ease tensions around the disputed Yellow Sea border, the scene of naval clashes in the past.

The North also renewed calls for South Korea to scrap its planned joint military drills with the United States, an exercise which Pyongyang routinely condemns as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

Park’s top press secretary Lee Jung Hyun said the North had a pattern of issuing peace offensives followed by military provocations, according to Yonhap news agency, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1638 HRS, JAN 18, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor