After a heard explosion and smoke seen on the border between the two Koreas, the South Korean ministry of Unification confirmed that the northern regime destroyed the office of liaison with Seoul, Tuesday June 16. It is a new step after weeks of tension between the two countries, which are officially still at war.

"North Korea blew up the Kaesong liaison office at 2:49 pm" (06:49 GMT), the spokesman for the ministry in charge of relations between the two Koreas announced in a line statement to the press. The latter appeared a few minutes after an explosion heard near Kaesong, the city where the office was located.

Since the beginning of the month, Pyongyang has multiplied vitriolic attacks against its neighbor, in particular against North Korean defectors who, from the South, send propaganda leaflets across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to the North.

And last week, the North Korean regime announced the closure of its political and military communication channels with the South Korean "enemy".

The leaflets, which are often hung on balloons that fly to North Korean territory, or inserted in bottles thrown into the border river, generally contain criticisms of Kim Jong-un's record in terms of human rights. 'Man or his nuclear ambitions.

Some experts believe that Pyongyang seeks to provoke a crisis with Seoul at the time when the nuclear negotiations with Washington are stopped.

Acknowledging the deterioration of inter-Korean relations, the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said on Tuesday that it was working on an "action plan" to "transform the front line into a fortress", according to l North Korean official agency KCNA.

This would include reoccupying areas that were demilitarized under an inter-Korean agreement, he said.

South Korean media suspect that this could mean the relocation of guard posts that the two neighbors decided to withdraw in 2018 to ease tensions.

The North Korean military is also planning to send "large-scale" leaflets south, the statement said.

Monday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a great architect of the 2018 rapprochement, had urged the North not to let "the window of dialogue close".

Since the protests in the North against the sending of leaflets from the South, Seoul has launched legal proceedings against two groups of North Korean dissidents accused of having sent these pieces of propaganda across the border. 

The Korean War (1950-1953) was punctuated by an armistice, not by a peace agreement, which means that the two neighbors are technically still in a state of war.

With AFP

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