North Korea destroys liaison office along border with South Korea as tensions escalate

There has been an explosion near the border between North and South Korea, in a dramatic escalation of tensions building for weeks.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Picture: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP

South Korea says North Korea has destroyed a symbolically important liaison building just north of the border between the two countries, in a troubling act of aggression.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said the destruction of the structure, in the North Korean border town Kaesong, happened at 2:49pm local time.

The liaison office was opened in 2018 to help the two Koreas communicate with each other following talks between North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

No one would have been inside when it exploded, as coronavirus restrictions have kept it empty since January.

“North Korea’s violent destruction of the liaison office at Kaesong is a symbolic blow to inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told the BBC.

“It’s hard to see how such behaviour will help the Kim regime get what it wants from the world, but clearly such images will be used for domestic propaganda.”

Photos from Yonhap News Agency show smoke rising from an industrial park in Kaesong, where the office was located. South Korea’s Ministry of National Defence has also released footage of the explosion.

Dramatic video from South Korea's Ministry of National Defense showing North Korea blowing up the liaison office with South Koreahttps://t.co/HIMAMG16uE pic.twitter.com/Vn6CCbG9tZ

— Victoria Kim (@vicjkim) June 16, 2020

Smoke rising in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. Picture: Yonhap via AP

Another angle. Picture: Yonhap via AP

Tensions have been rising between the two Koreas for weeks, with the North increasingly upset about defectors flying so-called “propaganda” leaflets across the border.

Last week, North Korea cut off all communication with the South, including a hotline between Kim and Mr Moon.

And over the weekend Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-Jong, specifically threatened to destroy the liaison office, calling it “useless” and promising a “tragic scene”.

“Exercising my power authorised by the supreme leader, our party and the state, I gave an order to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with (the) enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” she said in a statement broadcast by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“Before long, a tragic scene of the useless North-South joint liaison office completely collapsed would be seen.”

Her statement ended with the rather ominous warning that “rubbish must be thrown into the dustbin”.

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North and South Korea are separated by a demilitarised zone (DMZ) - a buffer of land about 4 kilometres wide. Within it is the Joint Security Area, where diplomatic meetings between the two countries take place.

You will recall Kim Jong-un meeting with both Mr Moon and US President Donald Trump at that location in recent years.

Today the North Korean military said it was “studying an action plan” to move “into the zones that had been demilitarised” and “turn the front line into a fortress”.

The two Korean leaders in more optimistic times. Picture: Getty Images

Following the explosion in Kaesong, Yonhap reports, the South Korean military strengthened its surveillance and general readiness along the border, anticipating “possible accidental clashes”.

“As of now, no unusual, specific military moves by the North Korean military have been detected. We are closely monitoring them,” said an officer from the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

EMERGENCY MEETING

On Sunday, South Korea convened an emergency security meeting and urged its neighbour to uphold the existing reconciliation agreements.

National Security Director Chung Eui-yong held a video converence with the ministers in charge of security, as well as South Korea’s military generals.

They discussed the escalating situation on the Korean Peninsula, and the government’s possible next steps, the presidential Blue House said in a statement.

The Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, later said that both Koreas must strive to abide by all agreements they have reached.

The Defence Ministry said separately it closely monitors North Korea’s military and maintains a firm readiness.

Both ministries said the South Korean government “views the current situation as grave.”

There is growing concern that North Korea could turn to increasingly provocative measures to bolster its internal unity and wrest outside concessions, as nuclear talks with the United States remain deadlocked.

Observers say North Korea desperately needs relief from US-led sanctions.

– with AP