The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Friday criticized Seoul’s offer of economic aid in exchange for the communist country’s denuclearization as “the height of absurdity,” and ruled out opening negotiations.
His words respond to the plan presented this week by the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, to provide food, energy and infrastructure to North Korea if it abandons its nuclear weapons program.
Analysts had already anticipated the proposal’s slim chances of success given that Pyongyang invests much of its wealth in its military program and has repeatedly made it clear that it will not accept such a trade.
Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, called the offer “the height of absurdity” and warned that the premise that North Korea will negotiate on its nuclear program is false.
“Thinking that the plan to exchange ‘economic cooperation’ for our honor, our nuclear weapons, is Yoon’s big dream, hope and plan, we realize that it is really simple and still childish,” he said in a statement. published by the official agency KCNA.
“Even before pondering the ‘north policy’ of the South Korean authorities, we can say that we do not like Yoon Suk-yeol himself,” Kim Jong-un’s influential sister wrote.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un poses with soldiers on Thursday during a meeting in Pyongyang. Photo: AFP
Kim Yo-jong, deputy director of the propaganda department of the North Korean single party, assured that the regime will never “sit face to face with him” whatever offer he proposes.
In addition, he accused South Korea of recycling proposals already rejected by North Korea. “Nobody trades their fate for cornbread,” she warned.
Pyongyang threats
The South Korean presidency said it “deeply regrets” Kim Yo-jong’s “disrespectful” comments, but said the offer still stands.
“North Korea’s attitude does not in any way help the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula or its own future, and only promotes isolation,” it said in a statement.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened to use nuclear weapons in a possible confrontation with the US. Photo: AFP
In the past week, Pyongyang threatened to take “deadly” retaliation against South Korea, whom he considers responsible for a recent outbreak of covid-19 in his territory.
Kim Jong-un said in July that his country was “ready to deploy” its nuclear deterrent force in the event of a military confrontation with the United States and South Korea. On Wednesday, Pyongyang fired two cruise missiles.
Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, said Kim Yo-jong’s remarks “clearly reaffirm” that Pyongyang will never give up its nuclear weapons and that Seoul should review its approach to denuclearization.
“The weight of the North Korean nuclear threat that South Korea has to live with has already exceeded the level it can bear,” he said.
The personal nature of Kim Yo-jong’s attack on Yoon Suk-yeol shows that relations are likely to be “very difficult” during the five-year term of the new South Korean president, Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.
Though noted for his tough stances against the communist regime before his election in March, Yoon said Wednesday that his administration will not seek to acquire nuclear deterrent capabilities.
North Korea displayed a record for weapons tests this yearincluding launching an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time since 2017.
The United States and South Korea warned that Pyongyang prepares the seventh nuclear test of your story.
Fuente: AFP
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