South Korean unification minister offers to step down over escalating tensions with Pyongyang

South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul offered on Wednesday to step down, saying he takes responsibility for the deterioration of ties between Seoul and Pyongyang, Yonhap news agency reports. 

“I feel sorry for failing to live up to the demands and expectations of our people for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim told reporters. He said he had already told the presidential office of President Moon Jae-in of his intention to resign. 

Tensions between North and South Korea have recently escalated, after a hopeful period of historic meetings between Kim Jong-un and President Moon Jae-in in 2018, and Kim and US President Donald Trump, the last of which ended in failure in 2019 over a dispute about easing US sanctions. 

North Korea blew up a North-South liaison office at its border town of Kaesong on Tuesday, and said it would redeploy troops to two inter-Korean business zones near the border and resume regular military exercises. Pyongyang also threatened military action in response to South Korean activists sending anti-North Korean leaflets to the country. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong called those involved in sending the leaflets “human scum” and “mongrel dogs.” She also accused South Korean President Moon Jae-in of “pro-US flunkeyism.” South Korea’s presidential Blue House said it would “no longer tolerate” North Korean provocations and would “respond strongly.”

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