JUDY WOODRUFF: Tensions between the Koreas
are on the rise today.
North Korea blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison
Office, a building near the border with South
Korea. This comes as North Korean rhetoric
has grown increasingly hostile.
Foreign affairs correspondent Nick Schifrin
has the story.
NICK SCHIFRIN: On South Korean TV, the music
and image were threatening, the Liaison Office
up in smoke, as captured by a South Korean
surveillance camera, destroyed in a single
explosion.
The building opened in 2018, a symbol of North-South
reconciliation. That year, North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon
Jae-in Moon had a rare rapprochement, and
a sitting U.S. president met a North Korean
leader for the first time.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States:
We had a really fantastic meeting, a lot of
progress, really very positive, I think better
than anybody could have expected.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In the background that day,
Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un's sister.
But since the promises made in Singapore failed
to turn into reconciliation, and the U.S.
ignored a vague New Year's deadline imposed
by the North, she's become more prominent,
and North Korea has become more belligerent,
cutting off communication with the South,
and threatening to advance its nuclear program
and deploy military to recently demilitarized
areas along the border.
And for more on this, I'm joined by Jeongmin
Kim, the Seoul correspondent for N.K. News
use, a Web site focused on the Korean Peninsula.
Welcome to the "NewsHour."
Let's talk about the motivations for what
Pyongyang is doing this. Is North Korea's
wrath targeted at Seoul? Is it targeted at
Washington? Or is there also an aspect to
this of domestic consumption?
JEONGMIN KIM, N.K. News: I would say that
it's all three.
The deal didn't happen between North Korea
and the United States. And the year-end deadline
that North Korea set for itself in Washington,
it just expired. And it seems that the anger
right now, it's targeted toward South Korea,
because, from North Korea's perspective, despite
all the goodwill gestures and all the agreements
in 2018, from North Koreans' point of view,
South Korea didn't do that much and didn't
help that much as a mediator between Washington
and Pyongyang.
There could be domestic concerns as well.
The party founding anniversary, the 75th anniversary
in October, is coming up. And the North Korean
regime has vowed that they will come up with
these dashing economic achievements by then.
But, right now, they don't have much to boast
about to the domestic public right now.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So, how significant are these
moves by North Korea?
JEONGMIN KIM: The statements from North Korea
in recent days were made by very high-level
officials such as Kim Yo-jong, who is North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister.
In March, she did start writing these statements
under her byline. But the difference right
now, since the first week of June, is that
her statements started coming out in a party
daily in North Korea which targets domestic
audience, which means that her profile is
going up in the domestic setting.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The obvious question then is,
is she being groomed in some way to become
more prominent, to maybe even take over one
day from Kim Jong-un?
JEONGMIN KIM: Although it seems that Kim Jong-un
seems pretty healthy and very much alive,
it seems -- it does seem that Kim Yo-jong's
prominence in recent days points to how North
Korean leadership is maybe prepping her up
to be a powerful voice as a -- as one of the
Paektu bloodline in North Korea, which is
a very important myth, a cornerstone of statehood
in North Korea.
NICK SCHIFRIN: At this point, is the overall
effort between President Trump and Kim Jong-un,
obviously facilitated by South Korean President
Moon Jae-in, is that effort effectively dead?
JEONGMIN KIM: I wouldn't say it's entirely
dead, but I would say that not much time is
left now, with the U.S. upcoming presidential
election, and also South Korean Moon Jae-in's
term not left that much, and with the U.S.
side and North Korean side not being able
to narrow down the gap between what they want
from the denuclearization deal.
It seems that, realistically, it's almost
impossible for the three actors to come up
with a solution.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Jeongmin Kim, Seoul, correspondent
for N.K. News, thank you very much.
JEONGMIN KIM: Thank you.
