#cross-border tensions

[kokchapress]

🚨 #Breaking: Taliban & Pakistan set Nov 6 for high-stakes talks after Istanbul breakthrough: ✅ Ceasefire extended 🛡️ Verification mechanism agreed ⚠️ TTP & trust gaps remain key hurdles #AfPakRelations #PeaceProcess

Upcoming Taliban-Pakistan Talks Set for November 6: A Critical Juncture in Bilateral Relations

[lmsintmedia]

Hezbollah Refutes Involvement in Rocket Attack on Israel

Hezbollah has dismissed allegations of launching rockets at Israel, following Israel’s retaliatory strikes on southern Lebanon. The Iran-backed organization issued a statement on Saturday, categorically denying responsibility for the attack, which Israel claims originated from Lebanon. In its official statement, Hezbollah asserted that Israel’s accusations serve as justification for its ongoing…

Hezbollah Refutes Involvement in Rocket Attack on Israel

[thoughtlessarse]

What's driving North Korea's aggression toward the South? | DW | 16.06.2020

Destruction of the Inter-Korean Liaison Office is a symbolic severing of ties with Seoul, but is Pyongyang confident due to its renewed alliance with Beijing and Moscow or externalizing internal crises?

North Korea blew up the Inter-Korean Liaison Office on Tuesday, further raising cross-border tensions on the peninsula after two weeks of vitriol and condemnations of the government in Seoul by Pyongyang.

A loud explosion could be heard from the South Korean side of the border that divides the peninsula, with a thick plume of smoke seen rising above the city. State media later confirmed that the North Korean authorities had "completely ruined" the office, which had effectively served as the focus of communication between the two governments, adding that it was pushing ahead with "cutting off all communication liaison lines between the North and South."

The statement added that the office had been destroyed because defectors and human rights activists – whom North Korea described as "human scum" – were continuing to send balloons filled with propaganda leaflets, data drives and dollar bills over the border into the North.

The office had been set up as part of the Panmunjom Declaration, which was signed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, in April 2018, and its destruction underlines the schism that has developed very suddenly between the two Koreas.

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A great triumph for the peace dealmaker Trump. Those sleeep-over parties have really paid off. Is there an Ignobel Prize for Peace?