Published 09:35 IST, June 9th 2020
North Korea cuts communication lines with South Korea over anti-Kim Jong Un leaflets
North Korea has decided to suspend all ties with South Korea after the latter failed to stop activists floating 'anti-Pyongyang'Â leaflets into the state.
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Amid growing tensions on the Korean peninsular, North Korea has decided to suspend all communication with South Korea after the latter failed to stop activists floating 'anti-Pyongyang' leaflets across the border of the two countries. Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea's state run news agency, has reported that all cross-border communication lines, including military communication, will be cut off at noon of Tuesday, June 9.
Communication suspended
“The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses. They should be forced to pay dearly for this," the message read.
"We have reached a conclusion that there is no need to sit face-to-face with the south Korean authorities and there is no issue to discuss with them, as they have only aroused our dismay," the KCNA report added.
As per reports, the decision was made by Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un, along with Kim Yong Chol, a former hard-line military intelligence chief who Seoul believes was behind two 2010 attacks that killed 50 South Koreans.
Earlier, North Korea had threatened to shut a liaison office in South Korea as the activists started sending pamphlets criticising the North Korean dictator.
Officials from both countries usually exchange two phone calls and short messages. However, international media reports, citing the South Korean government stated on Tuesday morning that South Korea had tried establishing contact via four different lines and there was no communication.
This is not the first time that North Korea has cut off communication lines, having done so previously and restoring the same later after tensions eased.
South Korean conservative activists, including North Korean defectors living in the South, for years have floated huge balloons into North Korea that carry leaflets criticising Kim Jong Un over his nuclear ambitions and abysmal human rights record. The leafleting has long been a source of tensions between the Koreas since the North rebuts at any attempt to undermine the Kim leadership.
As per reports, South Korean conservatives have urged their government to get tougher on North Korea and uphold their constitutional rights to free speech. South Korea reportedly lets activists launch such balloons, but it has sometimes sent police officers to stop them when North Korean warnings appeared to be serious. In 2014, North Korean troops reportedly opened fire at propaganda balloons flying toward their territory, triggering an exchange of fire that caused no known causalities.
(with inputs from AP)
09:35 IST, June 9th 2020