North Korea is set to cut off all communication lines with South Korea, including military hotlines between the two nations’ leaders, as it ramps up pressure on Seoul for failing to take action against defectors and activists who send anti-Pyongyang leaflets and other materials into the North.
State-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the decision was made following a Monday meeting of top officials in charge of relations with the South. The meeting’s attendees included Kim Yo-Jong, the sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. Just last week, Ms. Kim lashed out at the South, threatening to close the inter-Korean liaison office and other projects, unless it took serious action against hostile acts of cross-border propaganda. She said that such actions violated the peace agreements made between Kim Jong-un and the South’s Moon Jae-in, at the 2018 Panmunjom summit.
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This morning, KCNA’s report said that from 12:00, North Korea “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, which include the East and West Seas communication lines between the two militaries, an inter-Korean trial communication line and a hotline between the Worker’s party of Korea and the South’s presidential Blue House. KCNA also noted that government officials “stressed that the work towards the South should thoroughly turn into one against the enemy”.
The announcement comes as a massive setback to improving relations between the two countries, who still technically remain at war, given that the Korean war–which ended in 1953–ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
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Though the two nations’ leaders met over three summits in 2018, ushering in a wave of hope about refining their relationship, links between them have rapidly deteriorated since Kim Jong-un’s talks with US President Donald Trump collapsed last year with no agreement regarding denuclearization or easing UN sanctions on the country. Since then, North Korea has increased pressure on the South to work on improving inter-Korean economic ties as even before the North dismantles its nuclear weapons program. However, when Mr. Moon’s government placed denuclearization as a precondition for restarting ventures between the two nations, the North turned increasingly harsh towards the South.
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Experts claim that the move is likely a part of a broader plan by Pyongyang to ask for more concessions from its neighbor. North Korean isolation has increased due to the coronavirus crisis, and rising economic pressure and crippling international sanctions are taking their toll on the country and its leadership. This could be just a way for Kim Jong-un to distract the population from North Korea’s woes and rally the people around a common cause.
The South Korean government did not immediately respond to North Korea. It has long maintained that communication between the two nations through the hotlines is extremely important to avoid any unintended conflict between the two militaries amid soaring tensions on the peninsula. Last week, the country also criticized North Korean defectors, and said that it would push for laws to ban provocative leaflets. However, the North claims that the South’s response lacks sincerity.
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