REUTERS
June 6, 2020 at 08:25 JST
A man watches a TV screen showing a news program with a file image of Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul on June 4. (AP Photo)
SEOUL--North Korea lashed out at South Korea for the second day in a row on Friday, threatening to close an inter-Korean liaison office and calling the South naive to think the North wants dialogue and negotiations right now.
A spokesman for the United Front Department (UFD), which handles inter-Korea affairs, said North Korea would "definitely withdraw" from the liaison office operated with South Korean officials in the North Korean city of Kaesong as the first step in punishing the South for failing to stop defectors from sending leaflets across the border, according to a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.
The liaison office was one of several inter-Korea projects that were implemented during a period of detente between the two Koreas in 2018. Relations between the two countries have cooled again amid stalled talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons.
"We do not hide that we have had long in mind decisive measures to fundamentally remove all provocations from the south and to completely shut down and remove all the contact leverage with the south side," the spokesman said, calling defectors "mongrel dogs" and "human scum" who insulted the dignity of North Korea's supreme leadership.
On Thursday, KCNA carried a similar statement by Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea's leader, warning South Korea over the leaflets, saying it may cancel a recent bilateral military agreement if the activity persists.
South Korean officials quickly responded to Kim's statement, saying they make efforts to stop defector groups from sending leaflets, that the activities pose environmental risks and endanger private property in the South and raise tensions with the North, and suggested they may move to make such operations illegal.
South Korea's Unification Ministry did not immediately respond to Friday's statement by the UFD.
The UFD spokesman ridiculed South Korean officials, calling them "ignorant imbeciles" and "the meanest bastards" if they misunderstood or intentionally ignored the warnings in Kim's statement.
"We are about to start the work that can hurt the south side soon to make it suffer from annoyance," he said.
U.S. charges N. Koreans in $2.5 billion sanctions-busting scheme
May 29, 2020
N. Korea accuses South of ‘reckless’ drills along sea border
May 8, 2020
N. Korea defectors criticized over speculation Kim ill or dead
May 4, 2020
North and South Korean troops exchange fire along border
May 3, 2020
N. Korea's Kim Jong Un appears in public amid health rumors
May 2, 2020
Outsiders consider possibility of chaos in North Korea
April 30, 2020
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
