N Korean media blasts military exercises
TOKYO: North Korean media have stepped up their rhetorical attacks on South Korea and joint military exercises with the US, warning yesterday that a budding detente could be in danger.
State media unleashed three strongly worded commentaries slamming Seoul and Washington for the manoeuvres and demanding that Seoul take action against defectors it claimed were sending anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border.
The official media had until recently taken a relatively subdued tone amid the North’s diplomatic overtures to its neighbours, including a summit with South Korea’s president last month and plans for leader Kim Jong-un to meet US President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12.
That first changed last week, when it lashed out against the manoeuvres, cut high-level contacts with Seoul and threatened to “reconsider” the Trump summit.
One of the reports yesterday, which came as North Korea allowed an aircraft full of foreign journalists into the country to cover the dismantling of its nuclear test site this week, accused Seoul of teaming up with Washington for military drills intended as a show of force and as a “war drill” against it.
It’s not unusual for North Korea’s official media to turn to hyperbole to make a point and the rhetorical barrage coincides with a visit to Washington by South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Strongly worded messages don’t necessarily mean it is backing away from diplomatic negotiations.
But the North’s abrupt sharpening of its words has raised concerns the Trump summit may prove to be a bumpy one – or that it could even be in jeopardy. Trump has suggested he is willing to walk away if Kim isn’t willing to have a fruitful meeting and it appears both sides have agendas that remain far apart.
There has been no indication that North Korea will cancel plans to dismantle the test site, an important gesture of goodwill. The North has also not suggested it will go back on its promise to halt underground testing and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
But it did ban South Korean journalists from the trip to the nuclear site. And the language yesterday offered a veiled threat that talks could be harmed.
“Dialogue and sabre-rattling can never go together,” said the commentary published in Minju Joson, one of the country’s four main daily newspapers.” – AP