South Korean officials on Wednesday dismissed media speculation the 20-meter-high (60 foot) "Christmas" tower had been demolished as a conciliatory gesture aimed to improve relations with the North. The steel structure had previously been decorated with Christmas lights, complete with a giant illuminated cross, and had long been seen as a provocative form of propaganda by the atheist North Korean regime.

"The decision was unrelated to inter-Korean relations. Safety was the main reason," a South Korean defense ministry spokesman told news agency AFP. "There is no plan to replace it with a new one."

Instead, the ministry said there were plans to replace the 43-year-old tower with a park.

Pyongyang had repeatedly condemned the lit-up tree, which sits atop a hill about three kilometers (1.9 miles) from the heavily-fortified border. It had also threatened to shell the tower if it wasn't taken down.

Provocative Christmas symbol

South Korea switched off the tree's lights in 2004, after warming relations between the two states resulted in a deal to stop cross-border propaganda. That agreement also covered loudspeaker broadcasts and the use of large helium balloons to drop propaganda leaflets.

But South Korea allowed Christian groups to revive the ritual over Christmas in 2010 and 2012, following two attacks in which 50 South Koreans were killed. The tower stayed dark in the wake of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's death in 2011, and again in 2013 during heightened military tensions.

The dismantling of the tower comes after a North Korean delegation visited the South earlier this month and struck an agreement to resume high-level talks that had been suspended since February. Recent exchanges of gunfire between troops manning the border have, however, threatened to undermine an apparent easing of tensions.

The rival Koreas share a difficult relationship, and technically remain in a state of war because no peace treaty was signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

nm/glb (AFP, AP)