SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said on Wednesday that it will send troops and reload security guards and continue military exercises on the frontlines, as they will send inter-Korean cooperation sites currently closed on its territory. Two years ago.
The announcement is the latest announcement in a series of provocations, in which North Korea experts believe that there are calculated movements to put pressure on Seoul and Washington amidst nuclear negotiations. On Tuesday, he destroyed an empty inter-liaison office in Korea on the Northern territory.
Although North Korea’s recent actions did not cause conflicts or bloodshed, Pyongyang has been raising hostility on the peninsula to an unprecedented level since it entered nuclear negotiations in 2018.
The Northern General Staff said military units would be deployed to Diamond Mountain resort and the Kaesong industrial complex, both located just north of the heavily reinforced border. The two sites built with South Korean financing have been closed for years due to conflicts between Korea and US-led sanctions.
North said it will continue military exercises, rebuild security guards and increase military preparedness in border areas, and open open front sites to fly propaganda balloons towards South Korea. These steps will reverse agreements between Koreans in September 2018 aimed at reducing military tensions across the border.
The military of South Korea expressed regret for the North Korean announcement and warned that if it violates the 2018 agreements, the North will face unspecified results.
Joint Chief of General Staff, Major Jeon Dong Jin, told reporters that South Korea is continuing its military preparedness and will endeavor to prevent the rise of military tensions. Suh Ho, Deputy Minister for Merger, warned against the destruction of South Korean assets in the two cooperation areas.
According to the 2018 agreements, both Korea stopped live firing exercises, removed some mines and destroyed security guards along the world’s heaviest armed border.
Some experts argue that this move has weakened South Korea’s security more than the North, since Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal remains intact.
Sejong Institute analyst Cheong Seong-Chang, North Korea, will likely dismantle South Korean-made structures, equipment and other assets at the two cooperation sites before performing military exercises and firing missiles and projectiles into the sea, he said. In South Korea.
Cheong said that disruption of ties is now “inevitable” and may respond with the resumption of South Korea’s propaganda speaker broadcasts and joint military exercises with the United States.
Some analysts view North Korea’s provocations as an attempt to make concessions from Washington and Seoul at a time when its previously battered economy was likely worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. Sanctions say North Korea may be frustrated, as it prevents Seoul from leaving Washington to continue joint economic projects with Pyongyang.
North’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Wednesday that last steps have been taken to retaliate against South Korea’s activists from preventing propaganda leaflets from floating across the border.
He said that the destruction of the Tuesday building was “a reflection of our angry people’s efforts to punish those who retain the most noble dignity and prestige of our country and those who protect the filth, to the perpetrators of the creepy crime.” He said North Korea will adjust the intensity and timing of its additional steps while closely monitoring South Korean moves.
Kim Yo Jong, the strong sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, announced that North Korea recently refused to send special envoys by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to send special envoys to relieve tension.
Kim Yo Jong, who pioneered North’s recent rhetoric against South Korea, suggested “a little nonsense” and a “trick” to help Moon overcome a crisis. It also hit Moon’s call to return North Korea to negotiations and find a breakthrough in South Korea.
In response, Yoon Do-han, one of Moon’s senior chief advisors, described Kim Yo Jong’s statement as “very rude”, “illogical” and “pointless.” While expressing regret that South Korea had released North Korea’s offer to send ambassadors, Yoon warned that South Korea will no longer tolerate similar statements.
The verbal salvos exchange between Koreas is quite unusual under the Moon government, which has adopted more rapprochement with North Korea since it took office in 2017. Korea.
Having met Kim Jong Un three times in 2018, Moon was a driving force behind the diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington, including Kim and President Donald Trump’s first summit in Singapore in June 2018.
Relations between the Koreans have been strained since the disintegration of a second Kim-Trump summit in early 2019 due to the drowning of sanctions.
Analyst. Amateur problem solver. Wannabe internet expert. Coffee geek. Tv guru. Award-winning communicator. Food nerd.