South Korea said it will “strongly respond” after North Korea blew up a liaison office inside the demilitarized zone on June 16, following weeks of bellicose statements from Pyongyang.
“We make it clear that the responsibility for anything that could happen because of the act lies entirely with the North Korean side.”
North Korea blew up the communication office, established in 2018 as a symbol of reconciliation between the two countries, which are still technically at war as no peace treaty was ever signed.
“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, corresponding to the mindset of the enraged people to surely force human scum and those, who have sheltered the scum, to pay dearly for their crimes,” the propaganda outlet said.
It didn’t detail how the office was destroyed.
Several days ago, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of and an adviser to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, issued a series of threats to South Korea after a group of defectors launched balloons to drop leaflets inside the isolated communist country. North Korea last week also threatened to cut off all communication with Seoul.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said separately that it closely monitors North Korean military activities and is prepared to strongly counter any future provocations. The South’s vice unification minister, Suh Ho, who was Seoul’s top official at the liaison office, called the demolition an “unprecedentedly senseless act” that shocked “not only our people, but the whole world.”
About a decade ago, North Korea fired a torpedo at a South Korean ship, killing several dozen sailors. Days later, the communist regime shelled a border island, killing several people.
