DPRK suspends all economic cooperation with South Korea
Kyiv • UNN
North Korea votes to cancel all economic agreements with South Korea and repeal laws governing economic cooperation between the two countries.
The Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea has voted to cancel all agreements signed with South Korea to promote economic cooperation. This was reported on Thursday by North Korea's official KCNA news agency, Reuters reports, UNN reports.
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It is noted that relations between the two Koreas continue to deteriorate sharply.
The DPRK also voted to repeal laws regulating economic ties with Seoul, including a special law on the operation of a tourism project on Mount Kumgang.
Tours to Mount Kumgang, north of the eastern border, have been a symbol of economic cooperation that began during the period of interaction between the two Koreas in the early 2000s and has attracted nearly 2 million South Korean visitors.
The project was suspended in 2008 after North Korean guards shot and killed a South Korean tourist who had wandered into a restricted area.
North Korea has said it now considers the South an enemy in the war and last year canceled a military pact signed in 2018 aimed at de-escalating tensions near the military border, concluded under the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
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South Korean President Yun Suk-yol called North Korea's change in inter-Korean policy an "extraordinary change" but said it was difficult to understand what was behind the move.
What hasn't changed is that the North has been trying to turn us into communists for more than 70 years, and in doing so, they realized that their conventional weapons were not enough, so they went nuclear to threaten us
Yun, who has taken a tough stance against Pyongyang, said he remains open to engaging North Korea, even by holding a summit with Kim Jong-un, and providing assistance if it helps its economy, but said the North Korean leadership is "irrational.
Since coming to power in 2011, Kim Jong-un has encouraged North Korea to develop nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, which has escalated tensions with South Korea and the United States, despite their declining economies.
