South Korea's Unification Minister Resigns Over Mounting Tensions With North Korea

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul decided to stepdown from his responsibilities on Tuesday, after North Korea employed explosives to blow up a liaison office in Kaesong. Yeon-chul reportedly resigned from the post, without a single meeting with the North Koreans.

His official resignation came through on Friday after South Korean President Moon Jae-in accepted the Yeon-chul’s decision amid the mounting tensions with Pyongyang rise over the activities of defectors in the South and stalled diplomacy.

The North had earlier announced its decision to sever all government and military communication channels, in addition to abandoning a key military agreement reached in 2018 to combat conventional threats.

Yeon-Chul’s abrupt exit has put forth several questions, and it is still unclear who Moon Jae-in has on mind as a replacement. Concerns have been raised as to how the president should overhaul his foreign policy and national security personnel amid strained relations with the North.

Unification Ministry spokeswoman Cho Hye-sil told a briefing on Friday that it came to their knowledge that a group was planning to ship hundreds of bottles stuffed with rice, medicine, and medical face masks to North Korea by throwing them into the sea near the border on Sunday.

The émigré, however, had been warned to stop proceeding with its plan. Hye-sil reiterated that proactive measures were being taken to would stop the group and activists, in order to dissuade others from pursuing similar plans.

The ministry would impose harsh penalties on felons for violating a law concerning inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation. The South has also decreed, as per a report, that stern action will be taken against the two North Korea-born brothers who’ve painstakingly carried on with silent campaigns ‘by dropping leaflets over the border and floating rice-filled bottles into the North by sea.’

"The (South Korean) government will closely coordinate with police and local authority to strengthen on-site response and security,” to prevent the border campaigns,” said Hye-sil said on Friday.

North Korean officials continued to maintain a stony silence amid a flurry of inflammatory statements that came their way earlier this week. Incidentally, North Korean didn’t issue direct criticism of South Korea either but the state media recorded a steady flow of reports shedding light on how North Korean was infuriated at the South.