남북공동연락사무소 폭파 파주 오두산 통일전망대 연결
Hours after the North Korean military vowed it would take action... the North confirmed that it has blown up the inter-Korean liaison office.
Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the North's leader Kim Jong-un, had threatened to take military action against what she called the regime's "enemy" in protest against propaganda leaflets sent by South Korean activists.
We take you to Kim Ji-yeon who is at the Odusan Unification Tower in Paju... close to the inter-Korean border.
Ji-yeon, what can you tell us at this hour?
I'm standing within view of North Korean territory, and this is where some have said they had heard a loud bang and saw a cloud of black smoke rising up this afternoon.
North Korea's Korean Central News Agency later confirmed it had "completely destroyed" the inter-Korean liaison office in its border town of Gaeseong... with a terrific explosion at 2:50 PM.
Listen to what it had stated.
"With anger rising against those who have sheltered these scum,... its destruction was in response to their crimes. The the joint liasion office in the Gaeseong Industrial Zone... was completely destroyed following the shuttering of all communication lines between the two Koreas."
The people the regime disparaged in the report as "scum" are the North Korean defectors in South Korea that have been sending anti-Pyeongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.
The office's destruction came right after the North Korean military warned it would take action.
That's right.
The North Korean military made a public statement this morning that it's considering plans to send troops back into a border zone that was previously disarmed under the inter-Korean Comprehensive Military Agreement.
The zone wasn't specified but many believe it could be either the area near Mount Kumgang or Gaeseong,... where today's explosion occurred.
In response, the South Korean military has raised its monitoring of the North along the Military Demarcation Line... and has ordered all commanding officers near the border to maintain their positions in case of provocations.
Seoul's defense ministry said Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Park Han-ki were briefed in the Joint Chiefs of Staff combat control room.
The defense ministry has released images of the office's destruction, which it captured through surveillance assets,... and there you can see the building completely turned to rubble.
Back to you.
