North Korea staff returns to liaison office after pullout

South Korea says some North Korean officials have returned to an inter-Korean liaison office three days after the North abruptly withdrew its entire staff citing unspecified instructions from “higher-level authorities.”

On Friday, North Korea had said it was quitting the office, 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.

The liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea, was opened in September and had been one of the key developments made during the detente between North Korea and South Korea in the past year.

The withdrawal of North Korean staff had been seen as a setback for South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s attempts to engage with Pyongyang.

However, Trump on Friday said he has decided against imposing new large-scale sanctions on North Korea, a move that experts said could be an effort to defuse tensions or signalling that the “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign on North Korea was not going to get any stronger.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry says four to five North Korean officials showed up for work on Monday at the liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

It wasn’t immediately clear why North Korea sent some workers back to the office or whether it will restore a full staff.

The North’s decision to withdraw its staff came a week after it's vice foreign minister threatened to pull out of nuclear negotiations with the United States following the collapse of a nuclear summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump.