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This episode is also available as a blog post: https://atlanticgeo.wordpress.com/2020/06/21/whats-with-north-korea/
On Tuesday, June 16, 2020, North Korea destroyed an Inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong. The building was part of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, and was used during a consortium between the two Koreas that was suspended in 2016 amid disagreements over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic programs. South Korea invested about 9.78 billion won (7.6 million euros) in renovations to the complex in 2018 to resume relations, also mediated internationally by the U.S. The South Koreans worked on the second floor and the North Koreans on the fourth floor, and the third floor was used for conferences between the two countries.
These last two years have been promising for the stability of the region and have ran a lot of ink despite criticism from the American Democrats, but in recent months things have been very still, with the Covid-19 pandemic and Kim Jon-un’s “disappearance” certainly having impaired communications. On June 6, Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jon-gun’s sister, threatened to send troops to the demilitarized zone at the border that separates the Koreas and to destroy the liaison building. It accused the South of doing nothing to stop activists (led by North Korean defectors) from sending leaflets across the border, along with food, money and USB sticks with South Korean entertainment and news from the rest of the world, criticizing the Northern nuclear ambitions and alerting it to human rights violations. They do it using balloons over the air or bottles over the sea current.
