North Korea is literally blowing up its relationship with the South. But its bark looks bigger than its bite — at least for now.
Taking a page from its well-worn playbook on how to ratchet up tensions, Pyongyang on Wednesday said it had rejected an offer from Seoul to send envoys to help ease soaring tensions, instead vowing to redeploy troops to areas along the Demilitarized Zone, a day after symbolically blowing up a joint liaison office near the border.
What comes next remains unclear, but the moves — widely telegraphed in state-run media — “indicated some thinking about a larger plan,” said Jenny Town, managing editor of the North Norea-monitoring website 38 North. So far, she said, this plan has been “largely geared at South Korea and undoing the positive developments of inter-Korean agreements.”