North Korea says South Korea’s overtures ‘great miscalculation’

SEOUL – North Korea has no interest in any policy or proposals for reconciliation from South Korea, the powerful sister of its leader Kim Jong Un said on July 28 in the first response to South Korean liberal President Lee Jae Myung’s peace overtures.

Ms Kim Yo Jong, who is a senior North Korean ruling party official and is believed to speak for the country’s leader, said Mr Lee’s pledge of commitment to the South Korea-US security alliance shows he is no different from his hostile predecessor.

“If South Korea expects to reverse all the consequences of (its actions) with a few sentimental words, there could be no greater miscalculation than that,” she said in comments carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Mr Lee, who took office on June 4 after winning a

snap election

called following the removal of hardline conservative Yoon Suk Yeol over a failed attempt at martial law, has vowed to improve ties with Pyongyang that had reached the worst level in years.

As gestures aimed at easing tensions, Mr Lee

suspended loudspeaker broadcasts

blasting anti-North propaganda across the border and banned the flying of leaflets by activists that had angered Pyongyang.

Ms Kim said those moves are merely a reversal of ill-intentioned activities by South Korea that should never have been initiated in the first place.

“In other words, it’s not even something worth our assessment,” she said.

“We again make clear the official position that whatever policy is established in Seoul or proposal is made, we are not interested, and we will not be sitting down with South Korea and there is nothing to discuss.”

Following the KCNA comments on July 28, Mr Lee said it was important to restore trust between the neighbours.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, charged with handling ties between the two countries, said Ms Kim’s comments “show the wall of distrust between the South and the North is very high as a result of hostile and confrontational policy over the past few years”.

South Korea will continue to make efforts for reconciliation and cooperation with the North, ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-sam told a briefing.

Its new unification minister, Chung Dong-young, said he planned to advise Mr Lee to adjust joint military drills with the United States, Yonhap said. The exercises have been criticised by Pyongyang.

Still, the South Korean leader, whose government is in the midst of

tough negotiations with Washington

to avert punishing tariffs that President Donald Trump has threatened against a string of major trading partners, has said the US alliance is the pillar of South Korea’s diplomacy.

On the anniversary of the Korean War armistice on July 27, Mr Lee said Seoul would make efforts in all areas to “strengthen the South Korea-US alliance that was sealed in blood”.

North Korea also marked the anniversary, which it calls victory day, with events, including a parade in Pyongyang, although state media reports indicated it was at a relatively lesser scale compared with some previous years.

Columns of soldiers marched holding portraits of commanders, including state founder Kim Il Sung, with spectators and frail veterans in historic army uniforms in attendance in state media photos, which did not show major weapons as part of the parade.

A formation of military jets flew over the Pyongyang Gymnasium square in the night sky, trailing streaks of flares and fireworks. State media made no mention of Mr Kim’s attendance.

Both Koreas, the US and China – which are the main belligerents in the 1950 to 1953 Korean War – have not signed a peace treaty. REUTERS