DPRK to redeploy troops to demilitarized zone in border area with South Korea
Xinhua
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This photo provided by the North Korean government shows the explosion of an inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong, North Korea, Tuesday, June 16, 2020. (Photo: Korean Central News Agency via AP)

PYONGYANG, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The army of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced on Wednesday it would redeploy soldiers to the previously-demilitarized Kaesong Industrial Zone and the Mount Kumgang areas soon.

The army was making a clearer stand on more detailed military action plans outlined Tuesday so as to provide military guarantee for the measures taken by the party and the government, an unnamed spokesman for General Staff of the Korean People's Army was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying in a statement.

Under the detailed military action plans, to be approved by the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), units of the regiment level and necessary firepower sub-units will be deployed in the Mount Kumgang tourist area and the Kaesong Industrial Zone, both are located at the areas bordering South Korea.

According to the military spokesman, civil police posts that had been withdrawn from the demilitarized zone under the inter-Korea agreement in the military field, signed in 2018, will be set up again to strengthen the guard over the front line.

Moreover, the artillery units deployed on the whole front line will reinforce those on combat duty and will resume all kinds of regular military exercises in the areas close to the boundary.

The spokesman also said the areas favorable for scattering leaflets against South Korea will open and the people's drive for scattering leaflets will be guaranteed militarily.

The KCNA announced on Tuesday that the north-south joint liaison office in the Kaesong Industrial Zone was completely destroyed after a warning from Kim Yo Jong, first vice department director of the WPK Central Committee, three days ago that the liaison office would be demolished completely in strong protest against the anti-DPRK propaganda leaflets distributed across the border by South Korean non-government organizations and defectors from the north.

The liaison office was established in September 2018, as part of the Panmunjom Declaration signed by the two sides during the first summit between top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held on April 27, 2018.