Inter Korean Basic Agreement 1991

Inter Korean Basic Agreement 1991

On June 9, 2020, North Korea began interrupting all its communication channels with South Korea. This happened after Pyongyang repeatedly warned Seoul on issues such as the South`s inability to prevent North Korean emigrants from sending anti-regime leaflets to the border. The Korean Central News Agency called it “the first step in the determination to completely cut off all means of contact with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things.” [143] Kim Jong-un`s sister, Kim Yo-jong, and the vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers` Party of Korea, Kim Yong-chol, said that North Korea had begun to treat South Korea as its enemy. [144] A week before these actions, Kim Yo-Jong had called the North Korean defectors “human scum” and “Mongrel dogs”. The separation of lines of communication has significantly reduced the agreements reached in 2018. [145] On 13 June, Kim Yo-jong warned that “a tragic scene will soon be witnessed in the needless north-south liaison office” on 16 June, the North threatened to send troops withdrawn from the border back to the posts where they were previously stationed. Later that day, the Kaesong Joint Liaison Office was destroyed by the North Korean government. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the South Korean delegation left the building in January. [146] On 5 June 2020, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon said the prospects for peace between North and South Korea and the United States had “disappeared into a dark nightmare.” [147] On June 21, 2020, South Korea asked North Korea not to send propaganda pamphlets across the border. The request followed the North`s declaration that it was ready to send 12 million leaflets, which could be the largest psychological campaign against South Korea. [148] Since the end of the Korean War, 14 peace agreements have been concluded on the Korean Peninsula, starting with the 1953 ceasefire agreement, followed by the 1991 Basic Inter-Korean Agreement, the North-South Joint Declaration of 15 June 2000 and the Joint Pyongyang Declaration of last year.