Seoul - North Korea has blown up an inter-Korean liaison office
in its border city of Kaesong, a spokesperson for South Korea's
Unification Ministry said on Tuesday.
The explosion occurred in the afternoon, she said, without giving
further details.
Tensions have escalated between the neighbours in recent weeks,
following a propaganda airdrop campaign against North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un carried out by activists in South Korea.
Kim's younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, had threatened that North Korea
would take revenge and should "surely break with" South Korea, after
Pyongyang accused Seoul of having done nothing to address the
campaign.
Until the detonation, other threats had included the North pulling
out of a bilateral 2018 military agreement with the South or simply
shutting down the liaison office. It had already stopped answering
calls at the office in protest.
North Korea's national flag and the flag of the country's army are both raised at a North border outpost, visible from the South's border city of Paju. Picture: Yonhap/IANS
"Our army is keeping a close watch on the current situation, in which
the North-South relations are turning worse and worse, and getting
itself fully ready for providing a sure military guarantee to any
external measures to be taken by the party and government," read a
statement from the Korean Central News Agency, a mouthpiece for the
North Korean government.
South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, centre left, and Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification, centre right, attend at an opening ceremony for two Koreas' first liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea, in 2018. Picture: Korea Pool/Yonhap via AP
North and South Korea have never formally ended the 1950s-era war
that saw the creation of the two rivals. The current South Korean
government has put significant weight on efforts to improve
relations, which were helped along with three meetings between Kim
and US President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019.
There were similar high-profile meetings between the leaders of the
two Koreas, one of which saw Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae
In symbolically walk across the border together, hand in hand.
Smoke rising in the North Korean border town of Kaesong is seen from Paju, South Korea.Picture: Yonhap via AP
However, there has been little in the way of solid improvements in
the relationship. North Korea has also indicated it has no intention
of acceding to key demands, such as giving up its nuclear ambitions.
South Korean media have begun speculating that North Korea could soon
send troops back to Kaesong, where the two countries jointly operated
an industrial zone until 2016. Soldiers were stationed there before
the Kaesong complex began operations in 2004.
The action that seems to have so enraged Pyongyang involved
activitists sending balloons across the border laden with a half
million leaflets denouncing the North Korean government. Pyongyang
said this is a sign that Seoul is tolerating the actions of
North Korean refugees active at the border.
South Korea has accused the leafletters of unnecessarily aggravating
tensions on the Peninsula.
China, North Korea's main backer, made a call for stability after the
incident.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a press briefing on
Tuesday that "North Korea and South Korea are one people and, as a
neighbour, China has always hoped for the preservation of peace and
stability on the Korean Peninsula."