North Korea Turns Aggressive as Explosions Occur Near DMZ

With much of the world preoccupied with the dueling threats of a coronavirus resurgence and an all-out race war, North Korea’s certifiably kooky “supreme leader” is taking advantage of the chaos as he so often does.

Kim Jong Un, who was believed to be dead just months ago, has returned to the global stage in a big way this week, with military action aimed at destabilizing the often-tense relationship with their southern neighbors.

South Korea said Tuesday that North Korea’s military demolished an inter-Korean liaison office building just north of the tense Korean border, only days after the Hermit Kingdom threatened a “tragic scene” at the site.

The building, located in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, was destroyed at 2:49 p.m. local time, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said.

The situation seems to be turning serious.

NK News, an organization that tracks North Korean state-run media, reported that the North’s KCNA said the nation had cut off all communication between the two countries. North Korea had previously cut a key hotline with the South and had threatened to shut down all communication with its neighbor to the South.

“The north-south joint liaison office was completely ruined on Tuesday,” the propaganda statement read. “The relevant field of the DPRK put into practice the measure of completely destroying the north-south joint liaison office in the Kaesong Industrial zone in the wake of cutting off all communication ties between the north and the south, corresponding to the mindset of the enraged people to surely force human scum and those, who have sheltered the scum, to pay dearly for their crimes.”

North Korea has a long history of pendulous swings in aggression, often aimed at eroding the efficacy of sanctions against them.  By waxing and waning as often as they do, the reclusive Asian nation lays doubt at the feet of the international community, making the world wonder if any amount of diplomatic effort will bring them to heel for any length of time.