As North Korea has repeatedly escalated the confrontation situation on the peninsula without warning, South Korea has been closely observing possible actions by North Korea since the beginning of June. The Ministry of Unification of South Korea reiterated on the 14th that both the North and the South should jointly abide by the previously signed agreement. However, North Korea did not consider South Korea’s call
Picture/AFP
Text | Cai Tingyi reporter Cai Tingyi
Editor Hao Zhou
The Ministry of Unification of South Korea confirmed on the afternoon of June 16 that it was located in Kaicheng, North Korea at 14:49 local time. The Korean-North Korea Liaison Office building in the industrial park was destroyed, and there were no garrisons inside.
Then the North Korean official media Korea Central News Agency confirmed that North Korea "in order to cut off all north-south communications", bombed the building at 14:50, and emphasized that the building was destroyed in a "great explosion."
North Korea expert Andray Abrahanmian pointed out to the Caijing reporter that this action may mean that North Korea has given up dialogue with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Trump.
Another unnamed expert pointed out to the Caijing reporter that this is a new round of the campaign for North Korea’s negotiator with the United States and vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Kim Yong-cheol. The specific goals and effectiveness remain to be seen.
The escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula began on June 3, when Kim Yo-jung, the first deputy minister of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, accused South Korea of not doing its utmost to stop non-governmental organizations in South Korea’s Anti-Korean leaflets were sent within the territory and threatened to withdraw from the North-South military agreement.
South Korean police have for many years stopped any groups at the border from sending anti-North Korean flyers to North Korea through balloons and prevented defectors from sending broadcasts to North Korea on their own. However, these groups continue to evade the surveillance of South Korean law enforcement officers to conduct anti-North Korean propaganda in the dark, making South Korea unpredictable.
In response to the threat from North Korea, the Ministry of Unification of South Korea asked relevant groups to stop similar activities on June 4. However, Pyongyang was still dissatisfied and continued to attack and threaten South Korea through the media, and then cut off the DPRK-South Korea contact hotline on June 9. On June 13, Kim Yo-jung warned again that South Korea "will see the tragic and complete collapse of the North-South Korea Liaison Office", and then she will hand over the task of retaliation against South Korea to the North Korean army; Zhang Jin, director of the United Front Department of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea Zhe also said that North Korea’s trust in the South Korean authorities has completely disappeared.
As North Korea has repeatedly escalated confrontation on the peninsula without warning, South Korea has been closely monitoring possible actions by North Korea since early June. South Korea’s Ministry of Unification reiterated on the 14th that both the North and the South should jointly abide by the previously signed agreement. However, North Korea did not consider South Korea's call.
South Korea’s Unification Minister said after the explosion that the bombing of the contact building was expected.
As President Moon Jae-in enters his third year, the improvement of relations between South Korea and North Korea has also entered a countdown stage. Since the start of talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2018, the Moon Jae-in government has worked hard to help North Korea improve its economic development, especially in the thawing of the Kaesong Industrial Zone and Mount Geumgang Scenic Area, but various plans have been restricted by the UN embargo.
Blue House special adviser Wen Zhengren has also repeatedly stated to the outside world that none of the projects that the ROK-DPRK hopes to implement in the talks will be able to bypass the Security Council’s sanctions.
Abrahamian pointed out that the Moon Jae-in administration's unwillingness to differentiate from the US policy has frustrated Pyongyang, which is why Pyongyang may have chosen to give up.
The South Korea-North Korea Liaison Office was officially inaugurated on September 14, 2018. It is one of the agreements reached by the leaders of South Korea and North Korea in the "Panmunjom Declaration" with the purpose of strengthening exchanges between North and South.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung visited Pyongyang on June 15, 2000 and issued a North-South Joint Declaration with the then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The two sides agreed to establish mutual trust through various exchanges including economic exchanges. Then it was funded by South Korea in 2005The North-South Exchange and Cooperation Agreement Office was established in the year.
Since the exchange of fire with South Korea is dominated by Kim Yo-jung, the outside world speculates whether this means that Kim Jong-un may arrange a power exchange in the future. Professor Frank of the University of Austria pointed out that North Korea’s handover matters are hard for outsiders to guess. The former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il also relied heavily on his sister, Kim Kyong-hee, when he was alive, but in the end it was handed over to Kim Jong-un. Kim Kyung-hee served as a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.
