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News / Korea

North Korea blows up office used for talks with South in huge blast aired on TV

Three Indian soldiers have been killed in a clash with Chinese forces in Ladakh in the disputed Kashmir region.

SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean warning aimed at South Korea has steadily been escalating in intensity for more than a year: Your matchmaking diplomacy between our leader and President Trump is failing.

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On Tuesday, the​ accumulated frustrations of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, who embarrassingly returned home empty-handed from his second summit meeting with Mr. Trump in February 2019, exploded in cathartic fashion. The ​North blew up an inter-Korean joint liaison office created as a sign of good will toward President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who had brokered and encouraged the meeting.

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That blast effectively shattered a détente on the Korean Peninsula that​ had​ lasted ​two years. The period had raised hope for diplomacy that would lead to the dismantlement of the North’s nuclear arsenal or even a peace treaty with the United States, which technically remains at war with North Korea after nearly seven decades.

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With the blast, Mr. Kim wrecked one of the most concrete legacies of Mr. Moon’s friendly engagement with the autocratic North Korean leader, and signaled his exasperation with Mr. Trump’s approach as well.