By Kang Seung-woo

North Korea's decision to sever all official communication channels with South Korea is further weighing on President Moon Jae-in, who was already frustrated by Pyongyang's lack of response to his inter-Korean peace initiative.

President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with his senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. / Yonhap

Experts advise Seoul to take a "timeout" from repeatedly offering something to engage the Kim Jong-un regime, while bracing for any possible fallout from increasing tension on the Korean Peninsula.

On Tuesday, the North cut off all cross-border communication lines, including the hotline between Moon and Kim, due to its apparent anger over the South's "failure" to prevent North Korean defectors and activists from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border tethered to balloons. In addition, the North said "the work toward the South should thoroughly turn into the one against an enemy."

At the start of the year, the Moon administration emphasized the importance of inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation. In March, the President offered cross-border healthcare cooperation and made another proposal last month to deal with inter-Korean projects that could be carried out separately from the North's denuclearization negotiations with the United States.

In addition, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's landslide victory in the general election in April fueled expectations that his North Korea policy would gain momentum. Also, the unification ministry said the South's own economic sanctions on the North have virtually lost their effect as it allowed the construction of a railway line from the coastal city of Gangneung to the border town of Jeji ― a project agreed upon during the 2018 inter-Korean summit ― to begin the same month.

Such continuous extension of olive branches was made amid a deadlock in Pyongyang-Washington talks on denuclearization, as Moon believed inter-Korean projects could, if carried out well, facilitate the talks.

Even when Kim Yo-jong, the North Korea leader's sister and first vice department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, complained of the leaflet campaign last week, the government said it would legislate a ban on this to keep agreements alive.