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.
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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