North Korea News: Kim Jong Un's Regime Backs Down From Military Pressure On South Korea, But For How Long?

After several weeks of escalating tension between the two countries, North Korea has reportedly backed away from plans to increase military pressure on South Korea. The decision comes weeks after a joint liaison building on the North-South border was blown up and communication ended between the two sides.

According to a report from North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency, the move was made following a meeting between leader Kim Jong-Un and his military leaders. The report provided no specifics for the decision after this meeting.

Prior to this, North Korea had reportedly been planning to deploy forces to border areas like Mount Kumgang and the Kaesong Industrial area. This would have also involved reestablishing police setups in the demilitarized zones.

Analysts and experts on North Korea have suggested that such acquiescence could be temporary. Kim Dong-Yub of the Seoul Institute for Far Eastern Studies said that the decision was explicitly to postpone, not cancel, any action. He also suspects that the North might be waiting for South Korea to begin talks, rather than, in their eyes, show weakness by beginning talks to mend the relationship.

CBS News noted how some experts predict that if North Korea eventually resumes military provocation against the South, it will involve more artillery tests and possibly directing naval vessels to cross the disputed maritime border between the two nations. Since the Korean War ended in 1953, the two sides have not had engaged in many serious acts of warfare so such actions by North Korea would be considered posturing.

Tensions began to escalate when a group of defectors in South Korea sent balloons carrying anti-North-Korea messages on leaflets and SD cards over the border. Northern leaders claimed that this violated a peace deal set between the countries in 2018. North Korea responded but cutting off communications and blew up the liaison building, which had previously been used for joint talks but had not been used since the coronavirus outbreak.