N Korea slams latest US bans

OLYMPICS MARRED: NEW SANCTIONS; SIT-INS IN SOUTH

Rude reality check comes after Winter Games briefly united the two Koreas.

Seoul

North Korea yesterday accused the United States of provoking confrontation on the Korean peninsula with new sanctions, while South Korean protesters tried to block North Korean officials reaching the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

The Olympics, in South Korea, have given a boost to engagement between the two Koreas after more than a year of sharply rising tension over the North’s missile tests and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of UN sanctions.

But the closing days of the Games have been overshadowed by a US announcement on Friday that it was imposing its largest package of sanctions aimed at getting North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programmes.

“Thanks to our supreme leadership’s noble love for the nation and strong determination for peace, long-awaited inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation have been realised and the Olympics took place successfully by the inter-Korean collaboration,” the North’s KCNA news agency said, citing North Korea’s ministry of foreign affairs.

“[But] on the eve of the closing of the Olympics, [the] United States is running amok to bring another dark cloud of confrontation and war over the Korean peninsula by announcing enormous sanctions against the DPRK,” the state news agency said, using the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Earlier, about 100 conservative South Korean lawmakers and activists staged a sit-in near the border with North Korea, facing off against about 2 500 South Korean police, to protest against the arrival of a northern delegation led by Kim Yong Chol, an official accused of being behind a deadly 2010 attack on a South Korean warship.

The delegation took a different route, prompting the opposition Korea Liberty Party to accuse South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s administration of “abuse of power and an act of treason” by re-routing the motorcade.

Moon met Kim in Pyeongchang, where the Olympics were held.

The North’s decision to send former military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol to the closing ceremony has enraged many South Koreans. – Reuters