Seoul: North Korea blew up liaison office as tensions rise

South Korea says that North Korea has exploded an inter-Korean liaison office building just north of the tense Korean border.
Seoul's Unification Ministry says the destruction of the building at the North Korean border town of Kaesong happened at 2:49 p.m. on June 16.

North Korea had earlier threatened to demolish the building as it stepped up its fiery rhetoric over Seoul's failure to stop activists from flying propaganda leaflets across the border.

Some experts say North Korea is expressing its frustration because Seoul is unable to resume joint economic projects due to U.S.-led sanctions.

North Korea's military on June 16 threatened to move back into zones that were demilitarized under inter-Korean peace agreements as the country continued to dial up pressure on rival South Korea amid stalled nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration.

The General Staff of the Korean People's Army said it's reviewing a ruling party recommendation to advance into unspecified border areas that had been demilitarized under agreements with the South, which would "turn the front line into a fortress.''

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un days earlier said the North would demolish a "useless'' inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong and that she would leave it to the military to come up with the next step of retaliation against the "enemy'' South.

"Our army is keeping a close watch on the current situation in which the (North-South) relations are turning worse and worse, and getting itself fully ready for providing a sure military guarantee to any external measures to be taken by the party and government,'' said the KPA's General Staff, which is akin to other countries' Joint Chiefs of Staff.<...