SEOUL — North Korea said Tuesday it was severing all ties with South Korea and cutting communications links in protest at claims that it had torpedoed one of Seoul’s warships. The North said it would expel all South Korean personnel from a jointly-run industrial estate at Kaesong north of the border, and ban South Korean ships and planes from its territorial waters and airspace. The state Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said South Korea’s claims that it had sunk the warship were tantamount to a declaration of war. In a statement on the official news agency, it said it was freezing relations and abrogating a non-aggression agreement. The statement further heightened regional tensions sparked by a report last week from a multinational investigation team. The team said there was overwhelming evidence that a North Korean submarine had sunk the South Korean corvette on March 26 with the loss of 46 lives. The US said Pyongyang’s reaction was totally contrary to its self-interest. ‘I think it’s odd,’ State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters. ‘South Korea is one of the most dynamic economies in the world… North Korea is unable to care […]