Politics

Pyongyang provokes with nuke test, hacks, angry words

Tensions escalated on the Korean Peninsula early this year thanks to several hostile acts and remarks by North Korea, including its third-ever underground nuclear weapons test on Feb. 12. Just two weeks before the inauguration of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Pyongyang tested its third nuclear device, prompting international condemnation that led to the toughest sanctions yet by the UN Security Council.

Protesting the newest sanctions and the annual Seoul-Washington joint military drill in March, Pyongyang carried out a series of provocations against South Korea. It declared it was discarding the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, raised its military alertness to the highest level and launched a massive cyberattack against South Korean banks and broadcasting companies.

In April, the regime even shuttered the eight-year-old Kaesong Industrial Complex, a factory park it runs jointly with Seoul, pulling out its 53,000 workers from the complex and imposing an entry ban on all workers and cargo from South Korea. The five-month-long shutdown finally ended when the two Koreas reopened the complex in September.