North Korea Ends Communication With South Korea, Kim Jong Un’s Sister Blames ‘Mongrel Dog’ Defectors
North Korea has reportedly decided to end its communication with South Korea. The move comes as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly desired his country to “get rid of unnecessary things.”
According to the Associated Press, North Korea’s Central News Agency claimed all cross-border communication lines would be cut off at noon on Tuesday, June 9. The South Korean government confirmed that North Korea did not respond to several channels of communication enacted on Tuesday afternoon.
The North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the decision was in response to South Korea’s failure to stop anti-North Korean activists from floating flyers and other anti-North Korean materials across the border. The South Korean government generally views the act as a right guaranteed under free speech laws, though it has cracked down on the practice in times of intense tension with the Hermit Kingdom.
“The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses,” the KCNA said.
Though the pamphlets have been sent over for years, it appears that North Korea is taking a new rigorous approach to the practice as the country has been plagued with rumors of internal instability amidst rumors of Kim Jong Un’s health issues.
His sister, Kim Yo Jong, even publicly stated the defectors involved in recent leafleting were “human scum” and “mongrel dogs.”
In addition to the angry words, Kim Yo Jong also threatened more tangible actions, such as permanently shutting down a jointly run liaison office and factory park, in addition to ending a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.
However, a number of experts on Korean relations have claimed that Kim Jong Un is using this issue to express his anger that South Korea has neither pursued inter-Korean economic projects nor convinced its ally the United States to ease sanctions on the communist nation.
“The North Koreans have been trying to find something they can use to express their dissatisfaction and distrust against South Korea. And they’ve now got the leaftleting issue, so I don’t think we can simply resolve (tensions) even if we address issues related to the leafleting,” explained Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
The recent cessation of communication with South Korea is not the only action implemented by Kim Jong Un this past week.
As was previously reported by The Inquisitr, the supreme leader has also reportedly sought to root out corruption in the military by instilling strident new punishments and implementing a military propaganda push.
