North Korea quits South liaison office

MOVE PUT STRAIN ON DIPLOMACY

NORTH Korea has withdrawn its staff from an inter-Korean liaison office near the border, South Korean officials said.

The move came after talks in Vietnam last month between the US and North Korea collapsed due to disputes over US-led sanctions on the country.

Seoul’s unification ministry said North Korea informed the South of its decision during contact at the liaison office at the Northern border town of Kaesong.

The liaison office opened last September as part of a flurry of reconciliation steps.

The development will likely place strain on ties between the Koreas and complicate global diplomacy on the North’s nuclear weapons programme. Pyongyang said it “is pulling out with instructions from the superior authority”, according to a unification ministry statement.

It did not say whether North Korea’s withdrawal of staff would be temporary or permanent.

According to the South Korean statement, the North added that it “will not mind the South remaining in the office”, and that it would notify Seoul regarding practical matters later.

Seoul’s vice unification minister Chun Hae-sung said South Korea plans to continue to staff the Kaesong liaison office normally and that it expects the North will continue to allow the South Koreans to commute to the office.