North Korea slammed South Korea yesterday for dismissing a peace overture by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accusing Seoul of “pouring cold water” on its attempt to mend ties.
During his New Year address on Wednesday last week, Kim Jong-un hailed the execution last month of his once-powerful uncle, and accused the US and South Korea of maneuvering for a nuclear war.
However, he also called for a “favorable climate” to ease tension with Seoul, and said it was “high time” to improve ties that had been strained for years.
The South Korean government described the move as an empty gesture on Friday, urging the communist state to scrap its nuclear programs to show it is committed to mending relations.
“Peace and reconciliation cannot be achieved merely by words,” Seoul said in a statement, adding that “In order to improve ties between the South and the North, North Korea must show sincerity in building trust and above all, it must make genuine efforts for denuclearization.”
The North yesterday responded to the cool reaction by the South by calling it “undesirable” and saying it would result in further raising tensions on the peninsula.
“Seoul ... answered Pyongyang’s call for defending security and peace of the nation with bellicose remarks and provocative saber-rattling,” the North’s spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, in charge of cross-border affairs, told state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
KCNA described the move as “pouring cold water” on efforts to improve relations.
“This just indicates that South Korea has no will to improve the relations with the North, but will keep to the confrontation and war this year,” the spokesman said.
The prospect for future cross-border ties now “entirely depends on the attitudes of the South Korean authorities,” the spokesman said.
Seoul said on Friday that Kim had made similarly conciliatory comments in last year’s New Year speech, but the following months saw the North launch a series of provocations.
Pyongyang staged a third nuclear test in February last year — its most powerful to date — and later issued threats of atomic attacks on Washington and Seoul for staging joint military exercises south of the border.
It also unilaterally shut down an inter-Korean industrial zone in April last year, further escalating tensions.
After months of negotiation, the two Koreas agreed in September last year to reopen the Kaesong industrial complex.
South Korean Minister of Defense Kim Kwan-jin cautioned last week that the apparent peace overtures from the North could be a “smoke screen” aimed at hiding a fresh provocation, and urged the military to remain alert.
Kim Jong-un last month executed his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who had played a key role in cementing his leadership, for charges including treason and corruption.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the