South Korean officials say that North Korea has demolished the inter-Korean liaisons office near the border town of Kaesong. The office was opened in September 2018 amid much fanfare.
The building had no South Koreans working there, and therefore was a more symbolic step by the North of severing ties with the South, about two days after North Korean leader Kim Jon Un’s close aide and sister Kim Yo Jong announced that she would leave to North Korea’s military the right to take the next step of retaliation against South Korea.
The relations between the two nations had been strained on and off over the years but got worse after the Trump-Kim summit ended abruptly in February 2019.
North Korea was not approving of US military exercises in the South. The North was also not happy with the US proposition to lift sanctions only if the North denuclearised fully.
According to experts, Pyongyang is frustrated over a lack of progress in nuclear talks with the Trump administration and lashed out at South Korea for lacking a fresh solution to revive nuclear talks.
Besides this, the North also accused the South of condemning behaviour, namely—protecting defectors from the North and the South sending food and propaganda to the North.
Demolition of the inter-Korea relations office is the most provocative thing North Korea has done since it entered nuclear diplomacy in 2018 after a US-North Korean standoff had many fearing war. It will pose a serious setback to the efforts of liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in to restore inter-Korean engagement.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency did not mention how the office was destroyed.
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The office was located in an area which is now part of a now-shuttered inter-Koreanindustrial park.
The North has indicated that it has cut off all government and military communication channels with the South while threatening to abandon bilateral peace agreements reached during North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s three summits with Moon in 2018.
As per analysts, the action is a result of the North being provoked after failing to get what it needed from the South from nuclear talks
Presidential national security adviser Chung Eui-Yong, who worked as a negotiator Pyongyang and Washington to help set up Kim’s first summit with President Donald Trump in June 2018, convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the matter. On Monday, even as the North threatened to abandon a 2018 bilateral tension-reduction agreement, South’s President Moon Jae-in urged North Korea to stop raising animosities and return to talks, saying the two Koreas must not reverse the peace deals.
The General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said it was reviewing a ruling party recommendation to advance into unspecified border areas that had been demilitarised under agreements with the South, which would “turn the front line into a fortress”.
