Relations between the two Koreas weren’t in a great place when the year began, after years of little to no engagement between the two sides. And in 2023, the situation only grew worse.

North Korea ramped up its weapons development and tested nuclear systems explicitly targeting Seoul, while South Korea responded with round after round of unilateral sanctions and denunciations of human rights abuses in the DPRK.

Humanitarian rescues, defections and other incidents around the Northern Limit Line (NLL) exposed the potential for escalation along the border, a risk that only grew after Pyongyang stopped responding to calls via inter-Korean