Kim's sister criticizes Lee for peace overture, says Seoul not diplomatic partner
Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the North Korean ruling party's Central Committee, said Lee is unfit to change the course of history, while continuing to denounce ongoing military drills between South Korea and the United States.
Kim made the remarks during a meeting with the foreign ministry's director generals the previous day, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported.
"The Republic of Korea, which is not serious, weighty and honest, will not have even a subordinate work in the regional diplomatic arena centered on the DPRK," Kim Yo-jong said. "The ROK cannot be a diplomatic partner of the DPRK."
DPRK refers to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The remarks by Kim follow a series of Seoul's overtures to improve long-frayed inter-Korean relations. In his Liberation Day speech last week, Lee said he would respect North Korea's political system and would not seek unification by absorption.
He also pledged to take steps to restore the now-suspended 2018 inter-Korean military pact designed to ease tensions.
Kim said that since Lee took office, his administration has made sincere efforts to create the appearance of change aimed at improving inter-Korean ties.
"But no matter how desperately the stinky confrontational nature is swathed in a wrapper of peace, the awl in the sack can never be hidden," she said.
She referred to Lee's Cabinet meeting remarks Monday that "accumulating small steps could lead to the restoration of mutual (inter-Korean) trust," dismissing them as "a fancy and a pipe dream."
"We have witnessed and experienced the dirty political system of the ROK for decades ... and now we are sick and tired of it," Kim said, claiming that Seoul's "ambition for confrontation" with North Korea has persisted both under the conservative and liberal governments.
She also renewed criticism of the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise between South Korea and the US, calling it "drills for aggression."
"We should pay attention to the fact that through the current joint military drill ... the ROK is examining a new combined operation plan for removing the nuclear and missile capabilities of the DPRK at an early stage and expanding the attack into its territory," Kim noted.
She also named Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back and Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, slamming their description of North Korea as "enemies" during their confirmation hearings, and criticized Unification Minister Chung Dong-young's key policy tasks submitted to the National Assembly.
The KCNA also reported Kim instructed the country's foreign ministry to prepare countermeasures on relations with "the most hostile state" and its followers, based on state leader Kim Jong-un's view of South Korea.
The previous day, the KCNA published the leader's inspection of a test of the naval destroyer, the Choe Hyon, quoting him as saying that the joint South Korea-US military exercise was aimed at igniting a war.
The back-to-back criticism from North Korea came as South Korean experts said the regime might have expected a halt to this year's joint Ulchi exercise under the Lee administration.
North Korea often reacts furiously to the large-scale summertime drills, describing them as a "war rehearsal."
This year's Ulchi exercise began Monday for an 11-day run as planned, although half of its around 40 field training exercises have been postponed to next month, apparently in a bid to improve ties with Pyongyang. (Yonhap)
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