Despite South’s policy gestures, North not interested in engaging with South, leader’s sister says

North Korea has no interest in engaging with the South regardless of policy proposals from Seoul, Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, said in a statement published on July 28.

In a statement titled “The DPRK-ROK relations have gone completely beyond the time zone of the concept of homogenous” released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim rebuffed recent diplomatic gestures from the administration of President Lee Jae Myung.

The statement referred to both South Korea and North Korea by their official names, Republic of Korea (ROK) and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), respectively.

“The suspension of loudspeaker broadcasting against the DPRK, a halt to leaflet scattering and the allowance of individual ROK people for tour of the DPRK — these are details of the ‘sincere efforts’ the Lee Jae Myung government of the ROK made since the moment of coming into office with hope for improved relations with the DPRK,” said Kim, mentioning a slew of policies by the administration.

Kim dismissed Seoul’s decision to suspend anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker broadcasts as insufficient, saying that “all this is the scourge they have voluntarily invited and thus it is the issue of themselves no matter how they settle it and is nothing but a reversible turning back of what they should not have done in the first place.”

“In other words, it is not the work worthy of appreciation.”

This marks North Korea’s first official statement regarding the Lee administration. Pyongyang had previously refrained from issuing commentary on Lee’s election or inauguration, only reporting the outcomes.

“In addition to that, Jong Tong-yong, newly-appointed minister of Unification, proposed putting an end to the time of power for power and opening up the time of addressing the good will in kind, the time of reconciliation and cooperation, talking about the revival of the disappeared peace and the restoration of the collapsed south-north relations,” said Kim.

Referring to speculation that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un might be invited to the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, Kim dismissed the notion as the Lee administration “spinning a daydream.”

“We did not care who is elected president or what policy is being pursued in the ROK and, therefore, have not made any assessment of it so far,” said the statement.

Kim also lashed out at the South’s unification policy, describing it as being “enslaved to the departed spirit of unification by absorption” and that South Korea’s position “can not be changed as the fact shows that he has set as a task of the times the normal operation of the Ministry of Unification that must be dissolved along with the reality in which the state-to-state relations are permanently fixed on the Korean peninsula.”

“When only the 50-odd days since Lee Jae Myung’s assumption to power are brought to light, leaving aside the past history of the successive regimes of the ROK, the ROK authorities made such sweet remarks as defusing tension on the Korean peninsula and improving the DPRK-ROK relations, but their blind trust to the ROK-U.S. alliance and their attempt to stand in confrontation with the DPRK are little short of their predecessor’s,” said Kim.

President Lee Jae Myung, in response to a statement issued by Kim, emphasized the importance of restoring trust between the two Koreas through a peaceful atmosphere.

According to presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung, President Lee made the remarks after presenting a letter of appointment to Unification Minister Chung Dong-young at the presidential office earlier that day.

When President Lee asked Unification Minister Chung for his thoughts on Kim’s statement, Chung said, “Given the high level of mistrust built up over years of hostile policies, we will make efforts to establish peace,” according to Kang.

The presidential office also issued a statement shortly after Kim’s and said that it is “closely observing the North’s position,” highlighting that the message was the “first inter-Korean statement from a senior North Korean official since the launch of the Lee Jae Myung administration.”

The statement from the presidential office reaffirmed that “years of hostility and confrontation have built a high wall of distrust between the South and the North.”

The office reiterated that “settling peace without conflict is a firm principle of the Lee administration.”

“The government will continue to take consistent actions to realize a Korean Peninsula free from hostility and war,” the office added.

BY SHIN HYE-YEON [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]