North Korea shuts down hotlines with South

A daily phone call between the two Koreas has been cancelled by the North in a row over a leaflet campaign by defectors from the communist state.
North Korea said that it was shutting down the hotline from Tuesday as well as ending other communications with the South, said state news agency KCNA.
The daily call was made to a liaison office located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.
The two states had set up the office to reduce tensions after talks in 2018.
North Korea "will completely cut off and shut down the liaison line between the authorities of the North and the South, which has been maintained through the North-South joint liaison office... from 12:00 on 9 June 2020," the Korean Central News Agency report said.
When the liaison office was temporarily closed in January because of Covid-19 restrictions, contact between the two states was maintained by phone.