North Korea says it will cut military and political communications with ‘enemy’ South Korea in row over anti-Kim leaflets sent over the border
- North Korea will cut military and political communication lines to South Korea
- It is upset about defectors sending leaflets and other materials to the country
- On Tuesday, North Korea will end lines of communication at a liaison office
North Korea will cut military and political communication lines to ‘enemy’ South Korea on Tuesday, state media said, after threats over activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border.
For several days, North Korea has lashed out at South Korea, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if the South does not stop defectors from sending leaflets and other material into the North.
Pyongyang ‘will completely cut off and shut down the liaison line between the authorities of the North and the South, which has been maintained through the North-South joint liaison office,’ as well as other communication links ‘from 12:00 on June 9, 2020,’ the Korean Central News Agency said.
North Korean students take part in a rally denouncing ‘defectors from the North’ as they march from the Pyongyang Youth Park Open-Air Theatre to Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on June 8, 2020
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un takes part in the 13th Political Bureau meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on June 7
South Korean conservative activists launch balloons carrying leaflets denouncing North Korea in this photo from 2010
Top government officials in North Korea, including leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, and Kim Yong Chol, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, determined ‘that the work towards the South should thoroughly turn into the one against an enemy,’ KCNA said.
As a first step, at noon on Tuesday, North Korea will end lines of communication at an inter-Korean liaison office, and hotlines between the two militaries and presidential offices, among others, the report said.
The official pronouncements appeared to be a setback for a thaw in tensions in the past two years. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
The people of North Korea have ‘been angered by the treacherous and cunning behavior of the South Korean authorities with whom we still have lots of accounts to settle,’ KCNA said.
The report accused South Korean authorities of irresponsibly allowing defectors to hurt the dignity of North Korea’s supreme leadership.
‘This was a sign of hostility to all our people,’ KCNA said. ‘We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face to face with the South Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay.’