A view of an explosion of a joint liaison office with South Korea in border town Kaesong, North Korea in this picture supplied by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 16, 2020.
Tensions escalate between North and South Korea
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | JUNE 17th 2020
On Wednesday, North Korea said that it had rejected an offer from the South regarding sending special envoys over, and has in turn vowed the threat to redeploy troops along the border areas between the two civil factions.
South Korea offered to send special envoys over to the North in an attempt to try and ease the escalating tensions between the two, sparked over defiance by North Korean defectors that has led to the stalling of reconciliation efforts. This rejection announcement came a day after the destruction of a joint liaison office on the borders between the North and South of the peninsula.
The joint liaison office was built as part of the 2018 peace agreement between the leaders of the two countries – a step towards the reconciliation efforts that’s now thought to have been tarnished when it was “ruined with a terrific explosion,” as North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said. They added that “The solution to the present crisis between the North and the South caused by the incompetence and irresponsibility of the South Korean authorities is impossible and it can be terminated only when proper price is paid.”
The destruction of the liaison building, closed due to coronavirus panic since January, is a major setback for relations between the two countries and their efforts of settlement. Seoul’s efforts for inter-Korean relations are fully backed by the Washington according to the US State Department, who’ve advised Pyongyang to “refrain from further counterproductive actions.”
“Ominous prelude to total catastrophe of North-South relations,” was the headline to one of the articles, by the Workers’ Party in North Korea called Rodong Sinmun, regarding the liaison building. In the article, they showcased pictures before and after the destruction of the building.
South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, who is in charge of overseeing the South’s relations with the North, has recently handed in his resignation as a cause of the situation between the two countries worsening the way they had. He has since issued his apologies in a remark to reporters, for his failure to deliver on the people’s expectations for a resolution of peace and prosperity.
After Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un had pulled back from their series of trading threats and insults back in 2017, South Korean President Moon Jae-in offered to act in the role of the mediator between the two, which led to the many meetings between 2018 and 2019, that were meant to achieve a deal or breakthrough in denuclearisation, but only managed to be high on symbolism, failing to reach agreements.
“In the eyes of the Kims, Moon’s administration gave too much of false hope that it would defy US pressure to move their relations forward,” said Chun Yung-woo, a former South Korean nuclear envoy. “But after two years, what they have left is a failed summit with Trump and no progress whatsoever on inter-Korean economic cooperation.”
Jenny Town, a Korea specialist at the Washington-based Stimson Center think-tank, said that South Korea has thought of a way to achieve progress with the North, after the South’s rebuke following the rejection of the proposal for special envoys. “It can’t simply come back with more requests to talk about long-term plans or lofty goals, but figure out measures that are practical and don’t require international cooperation to achieve,” she said.
Much of Moon’s political and diplomatic capital had been staked on improving relations with the North, highlighting the importance that successful peace negotiations have to him. “They have no choice but to make concessions,” said Yung-Woo, referring to Moon’s administration.
By Patryk Krych | © The World Daily 2020
