North Korea Shuts Military Hotline with South

North Korea has declared that it is cutting a key military hotline with South Korea, amid tensions that were prompted by Pyongyang's nuclear test in February.

"Under the situation where a war may break out any moment, there is no need to keep up North-South military communications," a senior North Korean military official was quoted by KCNA news agency as telling the South before the line was cut.

The hotline is used to facilitate the travel of South Korean workers to a joint industrial complex in Kaesong.

North Korea has been angered by fresh UN sanctions following its 12 February nuclear test and US-South Korea military drills.

South Korea's Ministry of Unification confirmed that the North was no longer answering calls to the hotline, the Yonhap news agency says, according to the BBC.

On Tuesday, the North Korean army, inculding strategic missiles, were put in combat ready status.

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