SEOUL, March 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Friday that it will sever its emergency hot line with Seoul and nullify non-aggression agreements between the two countries, amid escalating tensions over the North's nuclear test last month.

"The DPRK abrogates all agreements on nonaggressions reached between the North and the South," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a propaganda organ against the South, said in an English statement carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency. "The DPRK will close the Panmunjom liaison channel between the North and the South."

   The DPRK is short for the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.