By Park Chan-Kyong
One year after North and South Korea vowed to resume a constructive dialogue, they have instead resurrected a spirit of Cold War-era antagonism, complete with cross-border propaganda shouting matches, spy messaging and defection dramas.
Official contact between the two Koreas has never been easy, but the current situation, with all official lines of communication severed and a host of flash-point issues raising tensions, appears to be particularly volatile and fraught with risk.
"The relations between North and South Korea have never been as tense as they are now since the Cold War period of the 1970s", said professor Kim Yong-Hyun, a North Korean expert at Dongguk University.
High-profile defections are suddenly back in vogue, with the North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain, Thae Yong-Ho, handing Seoul a propaganda coup this week by defecting to South Korea with his family.
Although Thae's motives were probably as much personal as ideological -- he has two children, one of school age -- South Korean officials attributed his decision to a straightforward choice between good and evil.
On his reasons for defecting, Thae "cited disgust with (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Un's regime and admiration for South Korea's free, democratic system," said Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee.
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