North Korea quits liaison office in setback for South after new U.S. sanctions

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un listen to questions from the media during the one-on-one bilateral meeting at the second North Korea-U.S. summit in the Metropole hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam February 28, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea on Friday pulled out of a liaison office with the South, in a major setback for Seoul, just hours after the United States imposed the first new sanctions on the North since the second U.S.-North Korea summit broke down last month.

North Korea said it was quitting the joint liaison office set up in September in the border city of Kaesong after a historic summit between leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in early last year.