South Korean unification minister quits as North says it will send troops to Kaesong
- Pyongyang says it has rejected diplomacy and will resume military exercises near the border, a day after it blew up an inter-Korean liaison office
- Kim Yeon-chul says he will bear responsibility for his ministry’s failure to maintain peace on the Korean peninsula
South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul on Wednesday said he would resign, as Pyongyang shot down Seoul’s offer of sending special envoys to ease the escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.
“I’ve decided to step down, taking responsibilities for the worsening South-North relations,” he told journalists. “I feel sorry for failing to live up to the demands and expectations of our people for peace and prosperity.”
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North Korea ‘blows up’ inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong
On Wednesday, Pyongyang also said it would redeploy troops to two now-closed inter-Korean tourism and economic sites near the border and take other steps, including flying propaganda balloons over the border, to nullify the landmark tension-reducing agreements made in 2018.
Kim Yeon-chul had been coming under growing criticism that the Unification Ministry was not assertive enough and too slow to address Pyongyang’s mounting anger over Seoul’s failure to follow through on the agreements for peace and economic exchanges.
Under those deals, both Koreas halted live-firing exercises, removed some landmines and destroyed guard posts inside the world’s most heavily armed border.
