SEOUL - SOUTH Korea called on Thursday for talks with North Korea to ease tensions after the communist country escalated threats against Seoul's government with a vow to close the border.

The message seeking talks was sent by the military to their counterparts in the North, who threatened on Wednesday to shut the border from Dec 1 in response to what they called Seoul's policy of confrontation.

'The South urged the North to continue to work for the co-existence, co-prosperity and better relations of the two Koreas through dialogue and cooperation,' a defence ministry spokesman told wires agencies.

The unification ministry which handles cross-border ties also plans to make an offer of dialogue later on Thursday, Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan said.

The North's military warned on Wednesday it would 'strictly restrict and cut off all the overland passages' across the border from next month.

Any total border closure would effectively shut down the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex, a joint project built just north of the frontier as a symbol of reconciliation.

It would also halt a popular tourist trip to Kaesong city.

The North also announced late on Wednesday it was shutting down the Red Cross office in the border village of Panmunjom, withdrawing delegates and cutting the organisation's phone lines there.

Announcing the Red Cross move, it blasted the South's decision to co-sponsor a United Nations resolution criticising its human rights record.

Cross-border relations soured after conservative South Korean President Lee took office in February. He promised to take a firmer line with the North after a decade-long 'sunshine' engagement policy under his liberal predecesors.

Ties frayed further after North Korean soldiers in July shot dead a woman tourist at another joint project, the Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast. Seoul suspended tours there in response. The North has said its border restrictions were in protest at Seoul's failure to honour inter-Korean summit agreements in 2000 and 2007.

But analysts say it chiefly wants to halt the spreading of tens of thousands of leaflets across the border by Seoul activists. These describe leader Kim Jong Il as a dictator and repeat claims that he suffered a stroke this summer.

The North had previously threatened to expel South Koreans from Kaesong in protest at the leaflets. Seoul says it has asked activists to stop launching balloons laden with leaflets but has no laws to make them refrain.

A senior South Korean presidential aide said the North may be trying to weaken the US-South Korean alliance but would fail.

'North Korea may have its own strategy to consider, but if it aims to drives a wedge between the United States and South Korea, it is wrong,' he said on condition of anonymity, urging the North to accept dialogue.

Dr Kim Yong Hyun of Seoul's Dongguk University said cross-border tensions would escalate for a while but not to the extent of closing down Kaesong.

'The North will have too much to lose if it completely shuts down Kaesong, and so will the South,' Mr Kim told wires.

'It will not only lose money and risk inter-Korean ties but also affect negatively the North's bid to improve relations with the United States.'

More than 32,000 North Koreans work for 83 South Korean-owned factories at Kaesong, along with about 1,500 South Koreans. It earns the impoverished North tens of millions of dollars a year.

Some of the factory owners met Unification Minister Kim Ha Joong on Thursday and asked him to try to stop the tensions from leading to Kaesong's closure. -- AFP