NORTH KOREA CUTS OFF ALL COMMUNICATION WITH SOUTH

NORTH KOREA CUTS OFF ALL COMMUNICATION WITH SOUTH

North Korea said it was cutting off all communication channels with South Korea

North Korea’s move was a response to South Korea’s failure to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across their border

South Korea’s said that cross-border hotlines must be maintained as they are the basic means of communication between the two Koreas 

North Korea–South Korea relations: Formerly a single nation that was annexed by Japan in 1910,

Both nations have been divided since the end of World War II in 1945

Engaged in the Korean War from 1950–1953, ended on July 27, 1953, with an armistice

Syngman Rhee refused to sign the armistice, but reluctantly agreed to abide by it

Armistice inaugurated an official ceasefire but did not lead to a peace treaty. It established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a buffer zone between the two sides that intersected the 38th parallel but did not follow it 

Since the 1970s, both nations have held informal diplomatic dialogues in order to ease military tensions

In 2000, President Kim Dae-jung became the first President of South Korea to visit North Korea, 55 years after the peninsula was divided

Under President Kim, South Korea adopted the Sunshine Policy in pursuit of more peaceful relationships with North Korea

The Sunshine Policy was formally abandoned by the new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in 2010 

In May 2017 Moon Jae-in was elected President of South Korea with a promise to return to the Sunshine Policy

In April 2018, the two countries signed the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula

On June 30, 2019, Kim and Moon met again in the DMZ, this time joined by US President Trump

However, tensions between the two countries remain.