https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/20 ... ce/1875963SEOUL, June 16 — North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border today, the South’s Unification ministry said, after days of increasingly virulent rhetoric from Pyongyang.
“North Korea blows up Kaesong Liaison Office at 14:49,” the ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, said in a one-line alert sent to reporters.
The statement came minutes after an explosion was heard and smoke seen rising from the long-shuttered joint industrial zone in Kaesong where the liaison office was set up less than two years ago, Yonhap news agency reported citing unspecified sources.
Its destruction came after Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said at the weekend: “Before long, a tragic scene of the useless north-south joint liaison office completely collapsed would be seen.
”Analysts say Pyongyang may be seeking to manufacture a crisis to increase pressure on Seoul while nuclear negotiations with Washington are at a standstill.
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-kor ... ea8275267Last week, North Korea cut off all communication with the South, including a hotline between Kim and Mr Moon.
And over the weekend Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-Jong, specifically threatened to destroy the liaison office, calling it “useless” and promising a “tragic scene”.
“Exercising my power authorised by the supreme leader, our party and the state, I gave an order to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with (the) enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” she said in a statement broadcast by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Before long, a tragic scene of the useless North-South joint liaison office completely collapsed would be seen.”
Her statement ended with the rather ominous warning that “rubbish must be thrown into the dustbin”.
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North and South Korea are separated by a demilitarised zone (DMZ) - a buffer of land about 4 kilometres wide. Within it is the Joint Security Area, where diplomatic meetings between the two countries take place.
This is a symbolically important building and a very aggressive move.
Where's fat boy? Is his sister starting to flex her muscles?