North Korea blows up inter-Korean liaison office near border with South

North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border on Tuesday, the South's Unification ministry said, after days of increasingly virulent rhetoric from Pyongyang. "North Korea blows up Kaesong Liaison Office at 14:49," the ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, said in a one-line alert sent to reporters. The statement came minutes after an explosion was heard and smoke seen rising from the long-shuttered joint industrial zone in Kaesong where the liaison office was set up less than two years ago, Yonhap news agency reported citing unspecified sources.