North Korea to suspend tours of border city of Kaesong starting Dec. 1

"We earnestly hope that the South and the North will cooperate so that the landmark projects will be normalized as early as possible," it said in a statement.

Relations between the two Koreas have been tense since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul in February with a pledge to change South Korea's policy toward the North. He said he would be different from his liberal predecessors, accusing them of being too soft on their nuclear-armed neighbor.

North Korea suspended reconciliation talks and threatened to cut any remaining ties with the South after Lee took office. It also branded Lee a "traitor," "a pro-American sycophant" and "despicable human scum."

Despite the chill in government-level ties, civilian exchanges have continued, with South Korean-run factories continuing to operate in the industrial complex in Kaesong, and Hyundai Asan organizing tours to the city's historic downtown.

Monday's announcement means the last South Korean tour of Kaesong will take place Nov. 30, and that cross-border traffic to the industrial park will be severely restricted.

A third inter-Korean project - tours to North Korea's scenic Diamond Mountain - were suspended after the shooting death of a South Korean tourist in July. The KCNA report said some South Koreans still working at Diamond Mountain will be expelled next month.

The North also said it will halt train service between South Korea and the Kaesong industrial complex - a symbolic rail line that was one of the first inter-Korean projects during a warming of relations under past South Korean administrations.

Since last year, a South Korean cargo train has made a round trip to Kaesong every day on a reconnected rail line, but has run empty most of the time because companies prefer to use a road running parallel with the railway to ship raw materials and goods.

More than 80 South Korean factories in Kaesong employ about 35,000 North Korean workers.

The city is just north of the border dividing the two countries, which technically remain at war because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The Kaesong tour program began last December and has drawn about 110,000 tourists.

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