Inter-Korean ties face bumpy roads as North Korea snubs Lee's overtures

Seoul, July 28 North Korea on Monday rejected the South Korean new liberal, Lee Jae Myung administration's overtures, to resume dialogue and improve relations, casting a cloud over Seoul's plans to ease tensions and build peace through engagement.

Earlier in the day, Kim Yo-Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accused President Lee's administration of "blindly adhering" to the South Korea-US alliance, declaring that Pyongyang will never engage in talks with Seoul.

"I make it clear once again that we are not interested in any policy or proposal put forward by Seoul, and there will be no chance of us sitting down with South Korea for any discussions," she noted in the North's first official statement toward the Lee government.

"Looking at around the past 50 days since Lee Jae Myung took office ... (he) is no different from his predecessor in blindly adhering to the South Korea-US alliance and pursuing confrontation with us," Kim said.

Since taking office last month, the Lee administration has promptly suspended military- and spy agency-operated propaganda radio, television and loudspeaker broadcasts targeting North Korea and urged civic groups to halt propaganda leaflet campaigns as it seeks to mend frayed ties with North Korea and resume dialogue, Yonhap news agency reported.

Throughout his presidential campaign and his first two months in office, Lee has pledged to seek dialogue with Pyongyang as a way to ease military tension and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula.

But Kim dismissed the suspension of propaganda broadcasts as "nothing but a reversible turning back of what they should not have done in the first place," saying it is not "worthy of appreciation."

"No matter how desperately the Lee Jae Myung government may try ... there can be no change in our state's understanding of the enemy and they can not turn back the hands of the clock of history which has radically changed the character of the DRPK-ROK relations," Kim also noted.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, while ROK stands for the Republic of Korea.

She also rejected South Korea's possible proposal to invite Kim Jong-un to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju in October as a "ridiculous delusion."

South Korea "will be stained by powder fumes through the successive large-scale joint military drills of aggressive nature, and the U.S. and the ROK will try to shift the blame for the deteriorating situation ... onto us," Kim noted.

Monday's statement from North Korea poured cold water on Lee's gestures to seek reconciliation and dialogue, and reflects the regime's new policy of viewing South Korea as a separate nation and renouncing unification as an inter-Korean goal.

After declaring in late 2023 that the two Koreas are two separate "hostile" countries, the North moved to dismantle inter-Korean concepts, such as unification, and suspended its broadcasting channels aimed at the South.

Experts noted it is too early to determine North Korea's true intentions.

Yang Moo-jin, President of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, pointed to Kim's frustrations over South Korea-US joint military drills, suggesting it may indicate the North is calling on Seoul to downsize or postpone the large-scale Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise scheduled to begin in mid-August.

"North Korea cited the South Korea-US alliance as the basis for its claim that the Lee administration is no different from its predecessor while pointing to joint military exercises as a symbol of confrontation," Yang said.

"The joint South Korea-US exercise scheduled for next month could be a kind of watershed (for inter-Korean relations)," he said.

Lee's office and the unification ministry affirmed that Seoul will continue to consistently pursue reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea.

"The latest statement demonstrated that the North Korean regime is closely watching the direction of the Lee government's North Korea policy," unification ministry spokesperson Koo

"The government will not waver in response to each reaction from North Korea but will calmly and consistently pursue efforts to build inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation and to realise mutual peace on the Korean Peninsula."

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor