North Korea said Nov. 24 it will suspend a joint tourism project to the historic city of Kaesong and halt cross-border train service with South Korea starting Dec. 1 over Seoul's hard-line stance on the isolated communist nation.

The North Korean Army also said it will "selectively expel" South Koreans from a joint industrial zone in Kaesong — but stopped short of shutting down the South Korean-run factories that are a key source of hard currency for the impoverished nation.

The announcement laid out the first concrete measures the North plans to take in implementing its threat to restrict traffic to the South and marked a new escalation of tension between the two countries still technically at war.

"The South Korean puppets are still hellbent on the treacherous and anti-reunification confrontational racket," the North said in a message to the South, according to North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency.