SEOUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th June, 2020) The current visit of South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, Lee Do-hoon, to the United States was scheduled long ago and has nothing to do with the fresh spike in tensions with Pyongyang, the country's presidential administration said on Thursday.
The KBS broadcaster has streamed a video of Lee arriving at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for an unannounced visit. This has triggered a speculation that Lee was sent to the US at the instruction of the presidential administration to discuss the escalation with North Korea.
"Some media reports suggest that the head of the Office for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, Lee Do-Hoon, allegedly went to the US as a special envoy. This is not true. Lee Do-Hoon is visiting the US in line with a long-planned schedule," Yoon Do-Han, the administration's spokesman, told reporters.
A day earlier, the presidential administration said that it had no intention to send an envoy to the US in connection with the current crisis on the peninsula.
"We can call the US by phone: why specifically send someone? If we have something to discuss, the communication channel between South Korea and the US is open at any time, if necessary. The key word here is 'if necessary,'" the official said.
Tensions in the region spiked after North Korea cut off communications with its southern neighbor and blew up on Tuesday the joint liaison office in the border town of Kaesong. According to Pyongyang, the move was in line with "the mindset of the enraged people" by a long-time campaign of North Korean defectors sending leaflets across the border from the South, criticizing policies of Chairman Kim Jong Un.
On Wednesday, North Korea's General Staff said that it would redeploy troops to Kaesong and the Mount Kumgang joint tourist zone on the east coast, as well as restore guard posts in the demilitarized zone, which were removed after an inter-Korean summit in 2018.
