Seoul - South Korea sent a message earlier today to North Korea, demanding its officials not to endanger their cross-border cooperation projects.

The Defence Ministry in Seoul said that the neighbours' joint economic projects, such as the industrial complex in Kaesong, North Korea, should be protected and expanded.

The ministry said such projects have benefits for both sides. It urged the North to resume the dialogue, which includes military contacts, that it has been suspended with the South.

"We urged the North Korean side to work for co-prosperity, co-existence and improved South-North relations through dialogue and cooperation," it said.

The ministry said bilateral military talks would include a South Korean offer to provide equipment to modernize the communication lines between the two countries' militaries.

Seoul's reaction was to the North's announcement Wednesday that it planned to "strictly restrict and cut off all the overland passages" to the South starting December 1 because of what it called its neighbour's confrontational policies and failure to abide by agreements made at bilateral summits in 2000 and 2007.

The communist state has recently stepped up verbal attacks against the South, repeatedly threatening to cut all ties. Relations between the two Koreas have cooled markedly since February when a conservative government took office in Seoul and linked the expansion of cooperation projects with North Korea with its nuclear disarmament.