North Korea demolished an inter-Korean liaison office located a joint industrial complex in the North Korea border town of Kaesong on Tuesday amid heightened tensions following anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets sent from South Korea by defectors, according to the South Korean Yonhap news agency.
An explosion was heard and smoke was spotted at the site on Tuesday. The South Korean Ministry of Unification confirmed that North Korea had demolished the office on Tuesday. North Korea announced later that the office was “tragically ruined with a terrific explosion.” “The relevant field of the DPRK put into practice the measure of completely destroying the North-South joint liaison office in the Kaesong Industrial Zone in the wake of cutting off all the communication liaison lines between the north and the south,” according to the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Chok Hyun-soo, a spokesperson for the South Korean defense ministry, stated on Tuesday that the US and South Korea are “closely monitoring and detecting” North Korean military movements under “close coordination,” according to Yonhap. The detonation of the office had been preannounced by North Korea, according to South Korea’s unification minister, who added that the country needed to “study more details of the situation,” according to Yonhap. South Korean President Moon Jae-In convened an emergency meeting of the country’s top security officials on Tuesday, shortly after the explosion occurred. Moon did not attend the emergency meeting.
The General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army (KPA) had warned that it would send troops “into the zones that had been demilitarized under the North-South agreement, turn the front line into a fortress and further heighten the military vigilance against the South,” according to Yonhap. The KPA added that it would also send propaganda leaflets into South Korea as retaliation for the pamphlets sent into North Korea. “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,” said the KPA.
Yonhap reported earlier on Tuesday that Kaesong and the Mount Kumgang tourist zone would be the most likely areas where North Korea would send troops.
The industrial zone in Kaesong was built as part of an agreement between then-South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung and former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in 2000.
Kim Yo-Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, stated on Saturday that South Korea would soon witness “tragic scene of the useless North-South joint liaison office completely collapsed,” according to Yonhap.
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