Recent developments on the peninsula warrant attention from Korea watchers, as they signal North Korea’s shift in its approaches to the United States and South Korea.
On Tuesday morning last week, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced that the North would cut off South Korea by shutting down “all contact means” with Seoul.
While the move came as a surprise to many, numerous signs suggest that this rise in inter-Korean tensions had been several months in the making.
SHIFTING DOMESTIC NARRATIVES
Early this year, Kim Jong Un chose
Recent developments on the peninsula warrant attention from Korea watchers, as they signal North Korea's shift in its approaches to the United States and South Korea.
On Tuesday morning last week, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced that the North would cut off South Korea by shutting down “all contact means” with Seoul.
Chiew-Ping Hoo is Senior Lecturer at the National University of Malaysia and Korea Foundation Fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia.
Siti Atiqah Mokhter is a member of Malaysia Scholars on Korea (MASK) Network and holds a Master of Social Sciences in Strategic and Security Analysis from the National University of Malaysia.