Inter-Korean tensions keep soaring after liaison office demolition

Tensions have escalated on the Korean Peninsula after Pyongyang blew up its liaison office with the South and prompted the resignation of South Korea's Unification Minister, a point man designated to mend fragile ties with the North.

Pyongyang blew up an inter-Korean liaison office building just north of its border with the South, citing outrage at Seoul over leaflets sent into the North, more often than not, by balloon over the North Korean border town of Kaesong or in bottles by the river.

Moreover, defector-led groups in the South regularly send anti-Pyongyang publicity flyers, along with food, US one-dollar bills, mini radios, and USB sticks containing South Korean TV shows and news clips.

Pyongyang has warned the South several times recently to stop the propaganda campaign and has already severed two valued hotlines with Seoul.

As for the demolition, North Korea had warned that the explosion of its liaison office building, which symbolized inter-Korean rapprochement, would prove a first step towards "a total catastrophe" in relations between the two sides.

North Korea threatened the next day to bolster its military presence in and around the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, and to resume military exercises in the border area, where they had been suspended to encourage US talks with the North on its nuclear program.

South Korea, for its part, responded that the North “will pay the price" in case of any military action.

Following the warnings, South Korea's Minister of Unification Kim Yeon-chul submitted his resignation and President Moon Jae-in "accepted” the offer, the presidential Blue House said in a statement, without giving further details.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

The neighbors began fence-mending talks in January 2018.

SS