The Reason Why North Korea Is Cutting Off Contact With South Korea

Illustration (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - North Korea has cut off contact with South Korea, including a special communication channel for the presidents of the two countries. Speculation also circulated about what reason North Korea did this. Starting from because of accusations of agitation from South Korea, to allegations that North Korea deliberately created a crisis for their interests.

Since last Tuesday, telephone lines at the liaison office located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong have been cut off. "North Korea will completely cut off and close the linkage between North and South Korean authorities ... Starting at 12.00 on June 9, 2020" the Korea News Agency (KCNA) reported as quoted by the BBC.

In addition, North Korea's military communication channels will also be cut off. Likewise, the communication channel between the two leaders of the country.

Previously, the liaison office was temporarily closed in January due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, contact between the two countries is still smooth. They make phone calls usually at 9am and 5pm. As of Monday, South Korea said that for the first time in 21 months, their phone calls went unanswered.

The two countries have set up border offices since a meeting between the two leaders in 2018. Relations between the North and South appeared to have improved in 2018, when the leaders of the two countries met three times.

The summit has not taken place in more than a decade. So what makes North Korea actually cut the communication relationship?

Reason for termination

Last week, the younger brother of the North Korean leader, Kim Yo-jung, issued a threat to close the border office unless South Korea stopped agitating defections against North Koreans through the distribution of leaflets. He said the agitation was a hostile act in violation of the peace agreement made during the 2018 Panmunjom Summit between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.

However, this assumption is not necessarily true. While other speculation circulates the reason why this is done is actually part of Pyongyang's grand plan.

As the BBC has reported, North Korea may have deliberately created a crisis to use tensions as leverage in later talks. In short, it could be just to seek attention from neighboring countries.

It is known that North Korea has used similar means in 2013 to try to win more benefits from the agreement with South Korea. Or this crisis was deliberately created to divert attention in the country. This is because Kim Jong-un failed to deliver the economic prosperity he continues to promise and rumors continue to circulate that COVID-19 is affecting parts of the country.

One of the people who signed the policy was Kim Jong-un's younger brother. He gave the order to cut ties with Seoul. This is a sign that will spark much speculation that he is being groomed as a replacement for his older brother.

As is known, North Korea and South Korea are technically still at war. The reason is that no peace agreement has been reached since the Korean War ended in 1953.