Same old song and dance, but with landmines
On Sunday, we learned that North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, had been placed in charge of the nation’s relationship with their South Korean neighbors. Her first act was to declare that she would order the military to take “measures” as required to stop the South Koreans from doing terrible things like floating leaflets over the border or something. She followed that up by blowing up the liaison office building the two countries had established in Kaesong. Nobody was injured because the building was empty and they’d previously threatened to get rid of it anyway, but the message being sent seemed clear.
Now, only hours after the detonation, we’ve learned that the North is sending back all the troops they pulled out of several border crossing areas. So I suppose the era of peace, love and flowers between the two Koreas and their hopes for reunification of the peninsula have been dashed. Or at least for the moment, anyway.
North Korea said Wednesday it will redeploy troops to now-shuttered inter-Korean cooperation sites, reinstall guard posts and resume military exercises at front-line areas, nullifying the landmark tension-reducing deals reached with South Korea just two years ago.
The announcement came a day after North Korea destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office in a choreographed display of anger that puts pressure on Washington and Seoul amid deadlocked nuclear diplomacy. The demolition was the most provocative act by North Korea since it entered nuclear talks in 2018, though the building in its border town of Kaesong was empty and the North had previously signaled plans to blow it up.
