South Korea stands firm as tension rises with North

By Rhee So-eui

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea made clear on Sunday it will not back down in mounting tensions with North Korea, which has threatened to shut their heavily armed border next week over what it sees as Seoul's antagonistic approach to relations.

North Korea has responded with relentless diatribes since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in February promising to invest heavily in the North only if Pyongyang moved to disable its nuclear weapons program, bringing an end to a decade of unconditional aid from the South.

"I'm trying to deal with North Korea in a right manner and I'm waiting for the North to change its attitude," Yonhap news agency quoted Lee as saying on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru. Lee insisted he was not a hard-liner.

His comments follow a fresh verbal assault of his government by the North which said on Saturday it would "respond decisively" to Seoul's anti-Pyongyang policy.

That riposte came after the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee voted on Friday to approve a resolution -- co-sponsored for the first time by South Korea -- criticizing North Korea for human rights abuses.

North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted an official as saying a recent remark by President Lee that he wanted unification of the two Koreas under democracy was tantamount to declaring he would use war to rejoin the two Koreas.

It did not elaborate on what decisive measures it would take against the South.

North Korea, angry as well about balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets that conservative activists have floated across the border in recent weeks, has said it would close the few links across the long-divided Korean peninsula from December 1.

In October, it threatened to reduce the South to rubble unless Seoul stopped the balloon bombardment -- something the South Korean government has thus far refused to do.

Regional powers are hoping to resume talks in Beijing next month with North Korea on a deal to dismantle its atomic weapons program in exchange for aid and a chance to end its international isolation.

(Writing by Jonathan Thatcher; Editing by Bill Tarrant)