N. Korea abolishes agencies working for reunification with South Korea
World
The decision was announced by the North's rubber-stamp parliament, the KCNA said.
PYONGYANG (AFP) - North Korea is formally abolishing a handful of key government agencies charged with promoting cooperation and reunification with the South, state media reported Tuesday.
The decision was announced by the North's rubber-stamp parliament, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, and came just weeks after the nation's leader Kim Jong Un stated that continuing to seek reconciliation with South Korea was a "mistake".
Inter-Korean relations have sharply deteriorated this year, with Pyongyang's spy satellite launch prompting Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military agreement aimed at defusing tensions.
Labelling South Korea the "principal enemy", Kim recently declared that efforts to reconcile and reunify with the North's rival "is a mistake that we should no longer make."
In their constitutions both North and South Korea claim sovereignty over the whole of the peninsula.
