Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye (click here) removed all the South Koreans from the industrial region. It was a hope of the current President Moon Jae-in of South Korea to return a goodwill mission to the region. Recently, North Korea's President Kim-Jong Un and his sister Kim Yo Jong demanded the leaflets crossing their common border from a South Korean activist group stop. That was curtailed but the entire project was not ended. The continued leaflet flights were not condoned by the South Korean government, but, SARS-CoV-2 has given a reason for such demands from North Korea.
The bombing of the Inter-Korean Liason Office was the next step in ending long sought after talks between the Koreas.
...The two (click here) have agreed a brief but significant list of forward steps: to work on a formal peace treaty, to “ease the sharp military tensions on the Korean peninsula”, to work on reunifying families split between North and South, and to cease propaganda activities against one another from 1 May. They will also establish a joint liasion group to work together on a variety of issues....
The decision by North Korea to bomb the building was a clear indication there is no more desired communications. They are still unhappy about the leaflet transit across it's border. This type of aggression probably will not discourage activists in South Korea.It is always sad to see such broken efforts toward peace, but, the region will probably be repurposed by North Korea since the joint effort at this point is dead. The worry is what exactly North Korea's plans are for this region and how will it effect the national security of South Korea.
There are great losses with these new demands and actions by North Korea.
...Kim Yo-jong (click here) first gained international attention in 2018, when she was the first member of the Kim dynasty to visit South Korea. She was part of the delegation to the Winter Olympics, where North and South competed as a joint team.
The 2018 thaw which followed saw her working alongside her brother as he set off on an international diplomacy path, meeting South Korean President Moon Jae-in, China's Xi Jinping and most importantly US President Donald Trump.
The close relationship with her brother and her increasingly senior roles in the political apparatus put her once again in focus in April 2020 during a period when Kim Jong-un seemed unusually absent from any public events....
They just don't seem to value the advances toward peace so much as these all being moves in a chess game. Basically, "What is the next move to win concessions from the West?"With this break with South Korea, North Korea has solidified it's permanence to it's nuclear program.
