Just hours after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) renewed military action threats at the border with South Korea, the DPRK demolished a joint liaison office in the border town of Kaesong. The site was originally opened in 2018 on the North Korean side of the border to facilitate communications between the two nations, though it had been empty since January 2020 due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
South Koreans officials say that the destruction of the liaison office "abandons the hopes of everyone who wanted the development of inter-Korean relations and peace settlement in the Korean Peninsula". Meanwhile, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin called for "restraint from all the sides".
Tensions between North and South Korea have been escalating in the past weeks, largely prompted by defector groups in South Korea sending propaganda and other materials across the border through balloons and drones. Recently, North Korean has condemned the South for allowing such activities, with Pyongyang announcing that it would officially cut communication links with Seoul last Tuesday. Over the weekend that followed, Kim Yo-jong, sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, threatened to redeploy troops to the demilitarized zone (DMZ).
Note: The first two images used in this article are from the public domain and do not require any attribution or citation for commercial use. The last photo is of Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. The photo is from Kim Jinseok (Official photographer of Republic of Korea), Blue House (Republic of Korea). It was retrieved from https://www1.president.go.kr/articles/2314, and use for commercial purposes is allowed.
