North Korea's Shift to 'Anti-Enemy Operations' Sparks Tae Yong-ho's Comment: "Leaflets Are Just a Pretext... Kim Jong-un Has a Plan"

Taeyoungho, Member of the Future United Party / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lim Juhyung] Tae Yong-ho, a member of the Future United Party and former charg? d'affaires at the North Korean Embassy in the UK, recently claimed that North Korea's severing of inter-Korean communication lines was part of a plan by Kim Jong-un.

On the 10th, Tae posted on his Facebook, stating, "He is looking for a justification to realize that plan," and added, "Cowardly, he is finding that justification in a few leaflets sent by the weakest and most vulnerable defectors, which is petty."

Regarding North Korea's announcement that it would shift its inter-Korean affairs to 'anti-South operations,' he said, "Until now, North Korea's inter-Korean affairs have consistently been 'anti-South struggles,' so there is not much change," and pointed out, "They only wrapped 'anti-South struggles' as 'Our Nation Together' when South Korea was needed, but North Korea's attitude has always been consistent."

He continued, "We should not view the behavior of the Kim Jong-un regime in a fragmented way," emphasizing, "After the Hanoi summit collapse, we should see the series of events?from Kim Jong-un's policy speech in April last year to the Party plenary meetings in December last year and May this year, which emphasized 'strengthening nuclear deterrence'?as a strategic continuum."

North Korea's state media, Chosun Central News Agency, reported on the morning of the 9th, "From 12:00 on June 9, 2020, the inter-Korean communication lines maintained through the inter-Korean joint liaison office, the East-West Sea communication lines between the North and South military, the inter-Korean communication test line, and the direct communication line between the Workers' Party Central Committee headquarters and the Blue House will be completely cut off and discarded."

The report added, "We have reached the conclusion that there is no longer any reason to sit down or discuss with the South Korean authorities," and described this as "the first step in completely closing all contact spaces with the South Koreans and eliminating unnecessary things."

Earlier, on the 4th, Kim Yo-jong, First Deputy Director of the Central Committee of the North Korean Workers' Party, warned in a spokesperson's statement that if the South Korean government neglects the distribution of anti-North leaflets, it must be prepared for retaliatory measures such as the closure of the inter-Korean joint liaison office, complete dismantling of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, and the annulment of the inter-Korean military agreement.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.