North Korea blows up inter-Korea liaison office, raising tensions

[Elderberry]

Military Times 6/16/2020

 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office building just north of the heavily armed border with South Korea on Tuesday in a dramatic display of anger that sharply raises tensions on the Korean Peninsula and puts pressure on Washington and Seoul amid deadlocked nuclear diplomacy.

The demolition of the building, which is located on North Korean territory and had no South Koreans working there, is largely symbolic. But it’s still likely the most provocative thing North Korea has done since it entered nuclear diplomacy in 2018 after a U.S.-North Korean standoff had many fearing war. It will pose a serious setback to the efforts of liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in to restore inter-Korean engagement.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the nation destroyed the office in a "terrific explosion" because its “enraged people” were determined to "force (the) human scum and those, who have sheltered the scum, to pay dearly for their crimes,” apparently referring to North Korean defectors who for years have floated anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.

The agency did not detail how the office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong was destroyed.

More: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/06/16/north-korea-blows-up-inter-korea-liaison-office-raising-tensions/

[catfish1957]

Sounds like NORK Pudgy boy is pissed world wide riots and COVID-19 has forced him permanently off the news.
Even this tantrum is barely moving the needle on the give-a-shit meter world wide.

[mountaineer]

North Korean Military Set To Advance Into Demilitarized Zone: Report
June 15, 2020

North Korean troops are reportedly prepared to enter the demilitarized zone that divides itself from South Korea.

“Our army is keeping a close watch on the current situation in which the north-south relations are turning worse and worse, and getting itself fully ready for providing a sure military guarantee to any external measures to be taken by the Party and government,” The Korean People’s Army said in a statement to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Monday.

“The KPA is studying an action plan for taking measures to make the army advance again into the zones that had been demilitarized under the north-south agreement, turn the front line into a fortress and further heighten the military vigilance against the south.” ... More at Breaking911

[catfish1957]

North Korean Military Set To Advance Into Demilitarized Zone: Report
June 15, 2020

North Korean troops are reportedly prepared to enter the demilitarized zone that divides itself from South Korea.

“Our army is keeping a close watch on the current situation in which the north-south relations are turning worse and worse, and getting itself fully ready for providing a sure military guarantee to any external measures to be taken by the Party and government,” The Korean People’s Army said in a statement to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Monday.

“The KPA is studying an action plan for taking measures to make the army advance again into the zones that had been demilitarized under the north-south agreement, turn the front line into a fortress and further heighten the military vigilance against the south.” ... More at Breaking911

Never heard of this Breaking 911 News service.  How reputable are they?  Cant believe pudge boy would go all in while potentially losing his little NORK party that has been allowed to  exist for almost 70 years.  Chicom strings?   Fake news? 

I guess we will have to watch.

[sneakypete]

Ah doan no nutting bout what yew guys do,but ah no that round hear,blowing up a office sends a message.

[sneakypete]

Never heard of this Breaking 911 News service.  How reputable are they?  Cant believe pudge boy would go all in while potentially losing his little NORK party that has been allowed to  exist for almost 70 years.  Chicom strings?   Fake news? 

I guess we will have to watch.

@catfish1957

Hard to say,but the day he starts getting mouthy is the same day they will squash him like the bug he is. Right now he is a useful tool,so they give him a little help and help keep him propped us as a buffer between them and the west.

Given the way the Chinese have morphed into becoming international bankers and exporters,it looks to me like Fat Boys days are numbered,anyhow.

[mountaineer]

Never heard of this Breaking 911 News service.  How reputable are they?  Cant believe pudge boy would go all in while potentially losing his little NORK party that has been allowed to  exist for almost 70 years.  Chicom strings?   Fake news? 

North Korea to deploy troops, resume military drills in demilitarized areas
Pyongyang also says it rejected request from Seoul to send a special envoy in a bid to easing souring tensions
Oliver Hotham
 June 16, 2020

North Korea’s army on Wednesday said it would soon redeploy soldiers to the previously-demilitarized Kaesong Industrial Zone and the Mount Kumgang areas, a move which would effectively nullify a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement amid mounting tensions on the peninsula.

In a statement carried on the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) just hours after the demolishing of an inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Kaesong, the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) said the retaliatory actions were in response to Seoul’s failure to stop activists sending anti-regime leaflets into its territory.

“Civil police posts that had been withdrawn from the Demilitarized Zone under the north-south agreement in the military field will be set up again to strengthen the guard over the front line,” the statement said.

“The artillery units deployed on the whole front line including the southwest naval front will reinforce those on combat duty, upgrade the level of the front guard duty to top class combat duty system throughout the front line and will resume all kinds of regular military exercises in the areas close to the boundary,” he said.  ... NK News

That wasn't the only news source reporting this.

[mountaineer]

Japan minister suspects Kim Jong Un’s health is behind ‘strange’ actions
By Yaron Steinbuch
June 26, 2020 | 8:51am

New questions have emerged about the condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with the Japanese defense minister suggesting that the latest round of saber-rattling from the rogue regime may be due to his poor health and a spread of COVID-19 in the country, according to reports.

Speaking at an English-language briefing at the Japanese Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo on Thursday, Taro Kono addressed the Hermit Kingdom’s “strange” actions amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, NK News reported. ...

Taking care to avoid attributing his remarks to Japanese intelligence, Kono said he believed the secretive country’s escalations may be to “take away the attention of North Korean people away from Kim Jong Un’s health, or the bad harvest or the bad economy.”

“We suspect, number one, that COVID-19 is spreading around North Korea as well, and Kim Jong Un is trying to … not [be] infected by COVID-19,” he said, the South Korea-based outlet reported. “So sometimes he doesn’t come [out] in public.” ...

More at NY Post

[catfish1957]

Japan minister suspects Kim Jong Un’s health is behind ‘strange’ actions
By Yaron Steinbuch
June 26, 2020 | 8:51amMore at NY Post

I think there is more "Wag the Dog" going on right now than I have ever seen.