North Korea quits Kaesong liaison office with South Korea, was opened with great fanfare

[enhanced_deficit]

This doesn't mean that historic MAGA Summits and Coins were a waste, things could turn around again in future:

North Korea quits Kaesong liaison office with South Korea



22 March 2019


The office was opened with great fanfare in September 2018
North Korea has withdrawn from the inter-Korean liaison office which was opened amid a warming of ties last year to facilitate talks with the South.
Seoul said it was contacted on Friday and informed that the North's staff would be leaving later in the day.

It has expressed its regret at the decision and is urging staff from the North to return as soon as possible.
The pullout follows a failed summit between the US and North Korean leaders in Hanoi last month.
The liaison office, located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, had allowed officials from North and South Korea to communicate on a regular basis for the first time since the Korean War. It is meant to be staffed by up to 20 people from each side.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47665514

[timosman]

Might have to do with the Kpop scandal

K-Pop in crisis: Scandal threatens to end the 'Korean Wave' and exposes culture of toxic masculinity

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/21/asia/kpop-korea-sex-scandal-intl/index.html

South Korean president calls for investigation into K-Pop's sex scandal

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2019/03/18/entertainment-news/south-korean-president-calls-investigation-k-pops-sex-scandal/

[enhanced_deficit]

Anything's possible.

[Swordsmyth]

:sleeping:


North Korea sent back its officials to an inter-Korean liaison office in the North's border city of Kaesong on Monday, reversing a decision two days ago to withdraw the officials, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.A group of four to five officials showed up at the office earlier in the morning saying they came to work "as usual," the ministry said in a statement.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/north-korean-officials-return-inter-korean-liaison-office-060722967--nfl.html

[RonZeplin]

Trump Tries To Undo North Korea Sanctions - Gets Sabotaged By His Own Staff
(https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/03/trump-tries-to-undo-north-korea-sanctions-gets-sabotaged-by-his-own-staff.html)
Last week saw some confusion within the Trump administration about sanctions against North Korea. A Trump tweet seemed to contradict his own administration's policies. The White House then thought up an implausible explanation for what Trump had done. The face saving measure worked, but new leaks now again undermine him.

U.S. media reported of the episode but missed a major point. The timeline below shows that the internal White House conflict was prompted by reactions from North Korea's side.

After bad weather and a strong sanctions regime against it, North Korea is running low on food (https://apnews.com/fe394eef5f7848f5be284d21a4b7624a). Last month its ambassador to the UN requested food assistance:

Kim, the ambassador to the U.N., said record-high temperatures, drought and flooding last year shaved more than 500,000 tons off of the 2018 harvest from the nearly 5 million tons produced in 2017.
...
Humanitarian assistance from the U.N. agencies is “terribly politicized,” he said, and sanctions against North Korea are “barbaric and inhuman.”


On Thursday the 21st the Treasury Department, ignoring the dire situation, issued new sanctions (https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/dprk_vessel_advisory_03212019.pdf) (pdf) against two Chinese shipping companies that are trading with North Korea. It also named more North Korean vessels that it suspects to be involved in sanction busting efforts.
National Security Advisor John Bolton tweeted:

John Bolton @AmbJohnBolton - 18:31 utc - 21 Mar 2019 (https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1108798329964675073)

John Bolton Retweeted Treasury Department Important actions today from @USTreasury; the maritime industry must do more to stop North Korea’s illicit shipping practices. Everyone should take notice and review their own activities to ensure they are not involved in North Korea’s sanctions evasion.


The next day North Korea reacted to the move by pulling its officers from the liaison office with South Korea:

Matt Lee @APDiploWriter - 9:25 utc - 22 Mar 2019 (https://twitter.com/APDiploWriter/status/1109023193619226626) SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — #SouthKorea says #NorthKorea has withdrawn its staff from an inter-Korean liaison office in North Korea.


The move was unexpected (https://www.foxnews.com/world/seoul-north-korea-withdrew-staff-from-liaison-office):

Seoul's Unification Ministry said Friday that North Korea informed South Korea of its decision during a contact at the liaison office at the North Korean border town of Kaesong. The ministry calls the North's decision "regrettable." It says the North didn't give a specific reason for its move.
The liaison office opened last September as part of a flurry of reconciliation steps.


The liaison office is one the few diplomatic contact points where talk between the two sides are still happening. The U.S. uses it to indirectly communicate with North Korea. Following the North Korean pull back there was likely a phone call from President Moon Jae-in of South Korea to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Ten hours after North Korea pulled back its liaison officers Trump contradicted his administrations position:

Donald J. Trump realDonaldTrump - 17:22 utc - 22 Mar 2019 (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1109143448634966020) It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!


The New York Times reported (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/world/asia/north-korea-sanctions.html) of confusion:

President Trump undercut his own Treasury Department on Friday with a sudden announcement that he had rolled back newly imposed North Korea sanctions, appearing to overrule national security experts as a favor to Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader. The move, announced on Twitter, was a remarkable display of dissension within the Trump administration. It created confusion at the highest levels of the federal government, just as the president’s aides were seeking to pressure North Korea into returning to negotiations over dismantling its nuclear weapons program.


The North Korea hawks were aghast. They wanted to keep the sanctions but could not contradict Trump. The White House needed to come up with an explanation:

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/03/trump-tries-to-undo-north-korea-sanctions-gets-sabotaged-by-his-own-staff.html

[Swordsmyth]

Contrary to an earlier White House explanation of a tweet issued by U.S. President Donald Trump last week withdrawing sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department, his message had indeed been intended to reverse the penalties against two Chinese shipping companies accused of helping North Korea evade sanctions, Bloomberg News reported March 26, citing an anonymous source. Bloomberg's source alleges the White House intentionally leaked a misleading report that Trump was instead planning to cancel other upcoming sanctions, in an effort to buy advisers time to persuade the president not to reverse the new Treasury measures.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situation-report/us-north-korea-trump-allegedly-attempted-reverse-north-korea-penalty