Smoke rises from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, Tuesday. The South Korean Ministry of Unification said North Korea blew up the South-North joint liaison office, located in the complex, at 2:49 p.m., three days after Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, warned that the office would "completely collapse." Yonhap

By Do Je-hae

North Korea blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in Gaeseong, Tuesday afternoon, following through on an earlier threat to do so.

The Ministry of Unification confirmed that the North had blown up the office at 2:49 p.m. following reports of an explosion and smoke from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC).

The office, set up in September 2018, was one outcome of the Panmunjeom Declaration announced April 27 that year after the first summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The office was set up to facilitate inter-Korean projects and joint events, and to support working-level negotiations between the two Koreas; but it had been non-operational since January this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The demolition came three days after Kim's powerful sister Kim Yo-jong issued a statement threatening hostilities, including military action, to protest anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent across the border from the South by North Korean defectors and activists.

"Before long, a tragic scene of the useless South-North joint liaison office completely collapsed will be seen," she said then.

About three hours after the explosion, the North's Korean Central News Agency said the country "completely ruined" the office.

Cheong Wa Dae condemned the explosion, saying Seoul would take firm action if Pyongyang continued measures that hurt inter-Korean ties.

"The South Korean government today expressed strong regret over the North blowing up the South-North joint liaison office building opened under the 2018 Panmunjeom Declaration. The North's destruction of the office is a violation of everyone's expectations for the development of inter-Korean relations and the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula," Kim You-geun, first deputy director of the National Security Council (NSC), said in a media briefing after an emergency meeting presided over by Chung Eui-yong, President Moon's national security adviser.

"The government has made it clear that the North is fully responsible for all incidents that may occur because of this (explosion). We sternly warn that, if the North continues to take steps to aggravate the situation, we will respond strongly," Kim said

Vice Unification Minister Suh Ho, the South Korean head of the liaison office, also said the destruction was an unacceptable act, adding the government was lodging a strong protest.