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The reclusive state, blaming the South's conservative government for dragging relations to a dangerous low, has said it would close their border on December 1 and is also limiting travel across the border with its main benefactor China.

"South-North relations now stand at a crossroads—heading toward catastrophe or reconciliation," the former president, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end decades of enmity between the two Koreas, told the Hankook Ilbo daily.

The reclusive state's retreat into its cocoon comes amid widespread speculation its leader Kim Jong-il, 66, may have suffered serious illness, possibly a stroke, and could be losing his iron grip on power.

There is no clear successor to Kim, who become the communist world's first dynastic ruler when he took over from his father and founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994 but remains the state's eternal president.

Analysts say it took Kim about two years to establish a hold on government following his father's death.

Since then he has allied himself closely to the military, which has one of the world's largest standing armies of around one million. But the policy of putting his generals and soldiers first has come at huge cost to the country.

Industry is rusting from lack of investment and the population of 23 million is constantly on the verge of famine.

Park Young-ho, an expert on the North at the South's Korea Institute for National Unification said the North may be trying to keep a firmer grip on its people who are hearing reports from the outside world that Kim may be sick.

"But I don't believe this move could lead to a complete shutdown of the already reclusive regime because North Korea just can't go back to its past self, which was completely isolated from the outside world," he said.

Travel agents in China said Pyongyang was restricting tourists from their side of the border which is the main route for trade and investment for the impoverished North.

This week, the North said it would not allow international inspectors to remove nuclear samples from the country, a stance the South said was tantamount to reneging on a pledge to regional powers over a deal to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for aid.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said on Thursday the North may be trying to strong-arm the international community into giving it more aid in exchange for Pyongyang taking its foot off the brakes on the disarmament deal.

The North has been angered at the cut in aid it has seen from its wealthy neighbor in the South after President Lee Myung-bak took office in February, and more recently expressed fury at anti-Pyongyang leaflets being sent across the border by civic groups.

Lee has called for an end to what had been a free flow of unconditional aid offered by his predecessors, including Kim Dae-jung, and instead said North Korea would only see massive cash flowing its way once it ends its nuclear arms program.