The Unification Ministry has stressed that it is North Korea’s provocations that are to blame for the collapse of inter-Korean ties.
 
Ministry Spokesman Lee Duk-haeng said in a regular news briefing that the North’s nuclear weapons development and continuous provocations are what have led to the current status of South-North relations.
 
Lee’s statement came a day after the North’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement that the Unification Ministry is going to great lengths to put the blame on the North for the collapse of inter-Korean ties, 

The group also claimed that the ministry should be dissolved, citing the ministry’s views on the suspension of the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex and reunions of separated families.