North Korea is escalating tensions with South Korea by sending troops to areas of their southern border that had been vacated by agreement in 2018. They will also be conducting military exercises on the border as well:
NY POST – North Korea said Wednesday that it will send soldiers to now-shuttered inter-Korean cooperation sites in its territory and reinstall guard posts and resume military exercises at front-line areas, nullifying tension-reducing deals reached with South Korea just two years ago.
The announcement is the latest in a series provocations North Korea has taken in what experts believe are calculated moves to apply pressure on Seoul and Washington amid stalled nuclear negotiations. On Tuesday, the North destroyed an empty inter-Korean liaison office in its territory.
The North’s General Staff said military units will be deployed to the Diamond Mountain resort and the Kaesong industrial complex, both just north of the heavily fortified border. The two sites, built with South Korean financing, have been closed for years due to inter-Korean disputes and U.S.-led sanctions.
The North also said it will resume military exercises, reestablish guard posts and boost military readiness in border areas as well as open front-line sites for flying propaganda balloons toward South Korea. Those steps would reverse agreements reached between the Koreas in September 2018 aimed at lowering military tensions along the border.
South Korea’s military expressed regret over the North Korean announcement and warned that the North will face unspecified consequences if it violates the 2018 deals.
Just yesterday Kim Jong Un’s sister gave the order to destroy “de facto embassy with South Korea” because she’d determined that the North-South joint liaison office was useless.
It looks like Kim Jong Un is tired of not being in the spotlight as he was two years ago and is being intentionally provocative to get the world’s attention again. But we see how that turned out last time, with Trump trying to get Un to agree to denuclearization and Un ultimately rejecting the proposal. Let’s not make that mistake again. Rather, it’s time to get tough with North Korea.