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South Korean President Moon Jae-in and National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong head to a ceremony to appoint new ambassadors at the Blue House on June 16. (Blue House photo pool)

After North Korea detonated the Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office in Kaesong on June 16, just as it had threatened, the Blue House expressed strong disapproval of the North and promised a stern response. The Blue House convoked the standing committee of its National Security Council (NSC) at 5:05 pm on Tuesday, with Blue House National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong presiding, to review the status of the detonation and discuss countermeasures. The standing committee met just two hours and 16 minutes after the office was demolished.

NSC Deputy Director Kim You-geun strongly criticized North Korea’s actions during a briefing at the Blue House following the standing committee’s meeting. “The government expresses its strong disapproval of the North Koreans’ unilateral demolition of the Joint Inter-Korean Liaison Office that was built in accordance with the 2018 Panmunjom Declaration. The demolition betrayed the hopes of all who want the development of inter-Korean relations and the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim said.

The Blue House’s reaction reflects its consternation about North Korea’s unilateral action, which disregarded South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s proposal on Monday for resolving the dispute through direct dialogue and negotiations. The liaison office in Kaesong had been regarded as an achievement of the Apr. 27 Panmunjom Declaration and a symbol of inter-Korean dialogue.

“As the president said, the Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office held symbolic significance as a promise to 80 million Koreans. Since that promise was undermined, it’s right for us to issue a stern warning,” a Blue House official said.

The Blue House didn’t seem to have expected that North Korea would move so quickly to demolish the Kaesong liaison office. As early as Tuesday morning, the Blue House had tentatively predicted that North Korea was seriously considering the offer that Moon had made in his message on the 20th anniversary of the June 15 Inter-Korean Joint Statement, noting that Kim Yo-jong, deputy director of the central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, hadn’t directly criticized that message.

Just 30 minutes before North Korea blew up the liaison office, a senior official at the Blue House had reiterated that the proposal for an inter-Korean summit remained valid while citing the inter-Korean cooperation projects that Moon had mentioned in his message the previous day.

Moon, his chief of staff Noh Young-min, and Chung, the National Security Office director, attended a ceremony at the Blue House at 3 pm on Tuesday at which newly appointed ambassadors were given their credentials. Considering that North Korea demolished the liaison office at 2:49 pm, 11 minutes before that ceremony began, it would seem that the South Korean authorities hadn’t been aware of what the North had planned.

That opens up the South Korean government to criticism for not having taken adequate precautions about the threat made by Kim Yo-jong three days before that “before long, a tragic scene of the useless North-South joint liaison office completely collapsed would be seen.” In apparent response to criticism about being caught off guard, the Blue House released footage that afternoon of the liaison office being detonated and emphasized that it had been closely following North Korea’s movements.

While the Blue House issued a firm response, it avoided depicting a direct altercation between the leaders of South and North Korea. Rather than personally presiding over the NSC meeting on Tuesday, Moon received briefings before and afterward. The reason that Moon opted not to preside over the meeting, which would have given the impression that he was personally giving the North a stern warning and promising to respond, is because it was Kim Yo-jong, and not Kim Jong-un, who has taken the lead in criticizing the South.

“The leaders of South and North Korea have met on four separate occasions. By staying on the sidelines for now, they’ve left themselves room for action,” a Blue House official said.

By Seong Yeon-cheol, staff reporter

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