North Korea will break the hotline on the border with South Korea. The North Korean state news agency KCNA announced this on Tuesday. The closure of the telephone line should be the first step in breaking all contact with South Korea.
The government of North Korea had been threatening to close the connections for several days after activists distributed leaflets in the country. North Korea says South Korea “irresponsibly” allows refugees from North Korea to “damage the dignity of North Korea’s supreme leadership.”
The country therefore says that it has come to the conclusion that there is no point anymore in discussing directly with the South Korean authorities in an attempt to improve relations between the countries. The relationship with South Korea should henceforth be seen as “a relationship with an enemy,” the North Korean government’s top executive, including Kom Jong-Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, has decided.
Tuesday’s official announcements are seen as a setback in the relationship between the Koreas, which has seemed to have softened in recent years. There has been tension between the countries for years, which are technically still at war since the Korean War in 1950-1953 ended with a truce.
South Korea has not yet responded to the decision of the North Korean authorities.
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