(CNN) -- Saber-rattling rose Monday to new levels on the Korean peninsula, as Pyongyang officials "scrapped" the armistice credited for nearly 60 years of uneasy peace and then failed to answer a hotline phone.
"The Korean Armistice Agreement is to be scrapped completely just from today," said a spokesman for the North Korean military -- the Korean People's Army Supreme Command -- according to Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party.
North Korea cited the U.N. Security Council's unanimous passage last Thursday of tougher sanctions against Pyongyang for carrying out missile and nuclear tests.
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