South Korea warns N Korea’s Kim against ‘reckless’ provocations

Bloomberg

South Korea warned North Korea against further provocations, after Kim Jong-un’s regime pledged to dismantle the last remnants of President Moon Jae-in’s legacy of rapprochement and move troops into disarmed border areas.
Moon’s office urged North Korea to tread carefully after the country reduced to rubble a $15 million liaison office set up north of the border in 2018 as a symbol of reconciliation.
Earlier on Wednesday, North Korean state media unleashed a fresh stream of threats and insults against South Korea and Moon, including a personal rebuke from Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong.
“We warn that we will no longer tolerate North Korea’s reckless words and actions,” Moon spokesman Yoon Do-han told a news briefing on Wednesday. South Korea gave no indications that the country would retaliate or that Moon would waiver from his goal of seeking cooperation with his neighbour.
South Korea funded the liaison office and opened it with great fanfare in the joint Kaesong industrial park to serve as a de facto embassy between the two Cold War enemies. North Korea stopped answering calls at the facility last week, accusing Moon of failing to uphold the agreements that established it, before announcing that the building had been “tragically ruined with a terrific explosion.”
Hours later, North Korean media published a statement from the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, saying the country would send troops in the areas around the factory park and to the Mount Kumgang tourist area.
The two Koreas agreed to remove troops from those areas to make way for the joint projects that had once been seen as symbols of unity.
The benchmark Kospi Index fell as much as 1.5%, after South Korea’s response.