North threatens to shutter liaison office with South

SEOUL — In the latest blow for interKorean cooperation, North Korea threatened to permanently shut a liaison office with South Korea as it continued to condemn its rival for failing to prevent activists from sending antiNorth Korean leaflets across the border.

The statement by North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party late Friday came a day after the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un said her country would end a military agreement reached with South Korea in 2018 to reduce tensions if Seoul fails to stop the activists.

Kim Yo Jong also said North Korea could permanently shut the liaison office and a joint factory park in the border town of Kaesong, which have been symbols of reconciliation between the two countries.

Desperate to save a faltering diplomacy, South Korea in response said it would push new laws to ban activists from flying leaflets by balloon to the North, which triggered a debate over freedom of speech.

But an unidentified spokesman of the Workers’ Party’s United Front Department said Seoul’s promise lacked sincerity, and the scrapping of the liaison office will be the first in a series of North Korean steps that would cause suffering for the South. The statement also confirmed an elevated status for Kim Yo Jong, who was described as her brother’s top official for interKorean affairs.

“We have had long in mind decisive measures to fundamentally remove all provocations from the South and to completely shut down and remove all the contact leverage with the (South),” said the spokesman.

Seoul had no reaction to the statement Saturday. In a speech marking South Korea’s Memorial Day, President Moon Jaein vowed to strengthen the nation’s defense, but he made no mention of North Korean threats to abandon interKorean peace agreements.

Sending balloons across the border has been a common activist tactic for years, but North Korea considers it an attack on its government. Defectors and other activists in recent weeks have used balloons to fly leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un over his nuclear ambitions and dismal human rights record.

The liaison office in Kaesong has been closed since late January after the Koreas agreed to shut it until the coronavirus is controlled.