Analysis: Rising Tensions Between North and South Korea

TaiwanPlus News

What's behind the escalating tension at the border between North and South Korea? TaiwanPlus speaks to Shreyas Reddy, a correspondent with NK News in Seoul.

Transcript

00:00What's driving the tensions between North Korea and South Korea?

00:03So to some extent this year, we've seen a definite escalation in terms of tensions between the two Koreas

00:11But fundamentally this is gone back. This dates back all the way to the Hanoi summit and after when North Korea

00:18fundamentally tried to cut off diplomacy with South Korea and the US and

00:23So we've seen in recent years

00:26Particularly since President Yoon Seok-yol took charge in South Korea, both North and South Korea have not really seen eye-to-eye with each other

00:35Engagement is still potentially on the table from Seoul side

00:38But not really in practical terms.

00:40In the recent days North Korea has put its frontier forces on high alert

00:45While accusing South Korea of flying drones over Pyongyang. How is South Korea responding to these developments?

00:51South Korea certainly is also looking to prepare for such eventualities. It plans to restore more border guard posts

00:58Which fundamentally is more a symbolic thing than anything else because technology, modern technology can do surveillance

01:04Just as easily without the guard post

01:07but it just it does say that neither side at this point is likely to

01:14Take a step back so we can possibly see more escalations in between the two sides in terms of tensions

01:21And in this case North Korea has accused South Korea's military of being behind the drones

01:27Which were distributing propaganda leaflets according to Pyongyang

01:31Now this has not been proven yet

01:34But it's certainly a possibility and if it is it will also represent a violation of the armistice between the two Koreas

01:42Which could lead to further military tensions

01:45To what extent does North Korea's nuclear weapons program contribute to the tensions?

01:50Oh, it's always been perhaps in one of the fundamental

01:56foundations of these tensions certainly

01:59North Korea's nuclear program it has

02:02Caused a lot of tension not just with South Korea, but also with the US, Japan, a lot of other countries

02:08It has been heavily sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, but this hasn't really stopped it from

02:15Continuing with its nuclear development for a while certainly during the diplomatic phase

02:20It seemed to make it look like it was stepping away from that

02:24But now as we saw with Kim Jong-un recently visiting a uranium enrichment facility

02:31They've made it clear that they are very much still in the game

02:36And that's something that South Korea would not accept under any circumstances

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