North pulls staff out of inter-Korean liaison office

Seoul, March 22

North Korea pulled its staff out of an inter-Korean liaison office on Friday, Seoul said, weeks after leader Kim Jong Un’s summit with US President Donald Trump ended without agreement. 

The office in the Northern city of Kaesong was opened in September as the two Koreas knitted closer ties, but the South’s vice unification minister Chun Hae-sung told the media that Pyongyang had “notified the South they are pulling out of the liaison office”. The decision had been taken “in accordance with an order from an upper command”, he said, adding: “They said they didn’t care whether we stayed at the liaison office or not.” 

The South’s President Moon Jae-in was instrumental in brokering talks between the nuclear-armed, sanctions-hit North and Washington, Seoul’s key security ally. — AFP