North Korea cuts all communication lines with South Korea

North Korea has cut all inter-Korean communication lines with South Korea.

North Korea said that this was the first in a series of actions as it declares South Korea as “the enemy”.

The hotline between the two countries’ leaders has also been halted.

Daily calls, which have been made to a liaison office located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, will be halted from today.
the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report said that North Korea “will completely cut off and shut down the liaison line between the authorities of the North and the South, which has been maintained through the North-South joint liaison office… from 12:00 on 9 June 2020,”

North Korea also said that military communication channels will also be halted.

According to sources, both North and South Korea made two phone calls a day through the office. South Korea said that its morning call was not answered for the first time in 21 months.

KNCA said, “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,”

Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un’s sister, has warned last week that the office will be closed unless South Korea stopped defector groups from sending leaflets into the North.

She said the leaflet campaign was a hostile act that violated the peace agreements made during the 2018 Panmunjom summit between the South’s Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.

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