SEOUL, June 9 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea urged North Korea today, to maintain communication lines between the two Koreas, after Pyongyang’s threat to cut off all inter-Korean hotlines, multiple local media reported.
An unidentified South Korean unification ministry official was quoted as telling local reporters that, the inter-Korean communication lines, which are a basic tool for communication, should be kept in place, as agreed upon between the two Koreas.
The official said, South Korea will follow the inter-Korean agreement, while makings efforts for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.
The remark came, after North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported earlier in the day 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,” starting from 12:00 noon (0300 GMT) on June 9 (today).
Other hotlines will also be cut off, which includes the East and West Seas communication lines between the military of the North and the South and the hotline between the office building of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and South Korean president office, Blue House, according to KCNA.
According to the unification ministry official, North Korea did not answer the call from South Korea, through all inter-Korean communication lines in the morning.
The development came in North Korea’s protest at anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets, flown by a South Korean civic group, composed mostly of defectors from North Korea, across the inter-Korean border.
Under the Panmunjom Declaration, the leaders of both countries agreed to stop all hostile acts in areas near the military demarcation line (MDL), including the scattering of anti-North Korea leaflets.
The declaration was signed by South Korean President, Moon Jae-in and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, after their first summit in the border village of Panmunjom on Apr 27, 2018.
On June 4, Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong Un, issued a statement threatening to close the joint liaison office or even completely dismantle a now-shuttered joint industrial complex in the border city of Kaesong, unless Seoul stops defector groups from sending leaflets into North Korea.– NNN-YONHAP
