North Korea blows up inter-Korean liaison office

South Korea's Yonhap News Television reported that an explosion was heard and aired a video of smoke seen over Kaesong, and the South's Unification Ministry said the liaison office had been destroyed.

North Korea blew up and destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office in its border city of Kaesong on Tuesday (June 16), South Korea said, after Pyongyang threatened to take action if defector groups push ahead with their campaign to send propaganda leaflets into North Korea.

A South Korean military source told Reuters that there were signs of the impending demolition earlier in the day, and South Korean military officials watched live surveillance imagery of the building as it was blown up.

Tensions have risen as Pyongyang threatened to sever inter-Korean ties and take retaliatory measures over the leaflets, which carry messages critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including human rights abuses.