DPRK cuts inter-Korean communication links

PYONGYANG/SEOUL－The Democratic People's Republic of Korea said on Tuesday that it would sever hotlines with the Republic of Korea as the first step toward shutting down all contact with Seoul, state news agency KCNA reported.

For several days, Pyongyang has lashed out at Seoul, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and other projects if the ROK did not stop defectors from scattering leaflets and other material into the DPRK.

On Thursday, Kim Yo-jong, sister of the DPRK's top leader Kim Jongun, issued a statement threatening to close the liaison office or even dismantle a joint industrial park in the border city of Kaesong unless Seoul stopped defector groups from showering the leaflets.

The ROK government had said it would push for legal bans on the leaflets, but Pyongyang said Seoul's response lacks sincerity.

"The South Korean (ROK) authorities connived with the hostile acts against the DPRK by the riffraff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses. This has driven the inter-Korean relations into a catastrophe," the KCNA said.

As a first step, at noon on Tuesday, Pyongyang will close lines of communication at an inter-Korean liaison office, and hotlines between the two militaries and presidential offices, the report said.

Other hotlines will also be cut off, which include the East and West Seas communication lines between the militaries and the hotline between the office building of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the ROK's presidential office the Blue House, it added.

On Tuesday morning, DPRK officials did not answer a routine daily call to the liaison office, nor calls on military hotlines, a ROK Defense Ministry spokeswoman said.

The routine calls between the two neighbors should be maintained as they are basic means of communication, said an unidentified official of the ROK Unification Ministry, responsible for inter-Korean affairs.

Panmunjom Declaration

Under the Panmunjom Declaration signed by ROK President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un after their first summit in the border village of Panmunjom on April 27, 2018, the two countries agreed to stop all hostile acts in areas near the military demarcation line, including the scattering of anti-DPRK leaflets.

The decision to cut communications marked a setback in relations between the two countries which remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Commenting on the renewed tensions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon that the people of the DPRK and the ROK are of the same ethnic origin and being a close neighbor, China always hopes to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang suspended virtually all cooperation with Seoul as its nuclear negotiations with Washington remain stalemated since a summit between the two leaders in early 2019 ended without agreement.

Xinhua - Agencies - China Daily