North Korea has blown up its joint liaison office with South Korea near the border town of Kaesong, South Korean officials say.
According to the report, North Korean state media reported that the four-story building, which is located in the town of Kaesong on the North Korean side of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, was “completely destroyed by a “terrific explosion” at 2:50 p.m. local time.
A plume of black smoke rising above the site was visible from the South Korean side of the border shortly after.
The move also comes just hours after the North renewed threats of military action at the Korean border.
The site, which is in the North’s territory, was opened in 2018 to help the two Koreas to communicate.
The liaison office has been empty since January due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Tensions between North and South Korea have been escalating for weeks, prompted by defector groups in the south sending propaganda across the border.
The North Korean leader’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, threatened to demolish the office in a statement at the weekend.
In recent weeks, North Korea has repeatedly condemned the South for allowing propaganda into its territory.
Defector groups regularly send such material via balloons, or even drones, into the North.
Over the weekend, Kim Yo-jong threatened to send troops into the demilitarised zone (DMZ) at the inter-Korean border.
Then, before the explosion on Tuesday, the military leadership confirmed it was ready to “turn the frontline into a fortress”.
“North Korea’s violent destruction of the liaison office at Kaesong is a symbolic blow to inter-Korean reconciliation and co-operation,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“It’s hard to see how such behaviour will help the Kim regime get what it wants from the world, but clearly such images will be used for domestic propaganda.”
Analysts say Pyongyang may also be seeking to create a crisis to increase its leverage as nuclear negotiations with the US are at a standstill.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because no peace agreement was reached when the Korean War ended in 1953.
South Korean authorities are investigating the defectors who sent the leaflets, but any attempts to prosecute them could be met with heavy criticism in a liberal democracy which prizes freedom of speech.
On Monday, Moon said it was imperative that North Korea return to the negotiating table rather than “return to the past period of confrontation by cutting the communication and raising tension.”
“The path that two Koreas must walk is clear. Like the river that twists and turns but eventually reaches the sea, the South and the North must keep their optimistic faith and take each step towards national reconciliation, peace, and unification, however, slow it may be,” he said.
“The promise of peace on Korean Peninsula that was made by Chairman Kim Jong Un and I, in front of 80 million Korean people, cannot be reversed.”