Why North Korea bombed South office

Special Desk

While Kim Jong-un’s sister attacked the South Korean president for putting his neck into the noose of pro-US flunkeyism, North Korea has explained why it blew up its South Korean liaison office in a border town.

A state media article accused the South of breaking 2018 agreements. South says it remains open for talks, it has condemned the North’s actions as senseless and damaging.

North Korea also renewed threats to move troops into the demilitarised border zone, warning of a “total catastrophe” between the two sides. Tensions have sharply escalated in recent weeks – partly prompted by defectors in the South sending propaganda over the border.

North Korea has followed through on a threat to demolish a joint liaison office with the South, causing alarm around the world. The establishment of the office was part of a flurry of reconciliatory moves in 2018 after leaders of the Koreas, who are technically still at war, met to try to improve relations.

After US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in 2019, there was hope the North would give up its nuclear weapons programme. But nothing came of those highly publicised summits.

Meanwhile, the North’s military said it would move troops to two symbols of past Korean co-operation: the shut industrial complex in Kaesong and the Mount Kumgang tourist zone on the east coast. There was also an attack from Kim Yo-jong – the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un – aimed at South’s President Moon Jae-in.

But despite the explosion of the liaison office though, the South says it hopes an agreement from 2018 in Pyongyang can be honoured. It is our basic stance that the 19 September military agreement should be complied with without fail to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and to prevent accidental clashes, the South’s defence ministry said.