North Korea Cuts All Communications With South Korea After Anti-DPRK Leaflets Spread

On Tuesday, the North Korean government have announced they will cut all communications with South Korea along with previous military agreements as it has now considered the South as an "enemy."

According to The New York Times, officials of North Korea in charge of relationships with the South, including Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, decided on Monday in a report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Two countries falling out

The government officials stated that their efforts toward the South will ultimately turn them into the enemy, reported KCNA on Tuesday. They also noted that they decided as they found no need to sit down and discuss relationships as South Korean authorities have only incited their disappointment.

On Tuesday morning, shortly after announcing the news, North Korea refused to take the call that the South made during its routine daily call using military hotlines that connect the two countries, said Seoul officials.

The KCNA wrote that South Korean authorities were responsible for conspiring against the North while evading the responsibility by making excuses. It also noted that the South should pay a hefty price for their actions, as reported by the Time.

Several activists from South Korea have continued to send balloons into North Korean territory that contained leaflets outlining anti-DPRK statements, including criticism of its nuclear ambitions and human rights interaction.

The leaflets have provided a source of tension between the two countries for years and are seen by the North as an attempt by the South to undermine the Kim regime.

Last week, Kim Yo Jong called North Korean defectors "human scum" after leaflets criticizing the North's government spread around.

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A missed opportunity of reconciliation

Two years ago saw a dramatically different situation where South Korean President Moon Jae-in visited the capital of North Korea, becoming the first South Korean leader to speak before a large crowd of North Koreans.

Since Kim Jong-un's second summit meeting with President Trump February of last year, however, inter-Korean relationships have rapidly deteriorated. The gathering concluded with no arrangement of dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program or alleviating sanctions by the United Nations on the country.

After the falling out between the North Korean and American governments, the North has continued to push pressure onto the South Korean administration to ignore the United States' advice and continue improving inter-Korean economic relations.

The North demanded the reopening of the joint tourism venture located at the Diamond Mountain resort complex along with a joint industrial park situated in Kaesong. Both of these ventures provided a vital source of income before disputes between the two countries forced them to shut down.

When South Korea demanded the North to denuclearize before they began the move to reopen the ventures, the North started to pressure Moon's administration increasingly.

Kim Yo Jong, on Thursday, warned that the North would begin dismantling the previous agreements that sought to reduce military tensions between the two countries unless South Korean authorities halted the surge of anti-DPRK leaflets that North Korean defectors were spreading around.