North Korea slams ‘ incompetent’ South as border tensions simmer
● Criticism comes a day after North cancels nuclear weapons meeting
North Korea has strongly criticised South Korea over ongoing military exercises and declared it will not return to talks with its rival until Seoul resolves its grievances.
The comments came a day after Nor th Korea cancelled a high- level meeting with the South because of the Americainvolved drills, and threatened to scrap next month’s historic meeting between its leader, Kim Jong- Un, and US president Donald Trump.
The North has said it had no interest in a “one- sided” affair meant to pressure it to abandon its nuclear weapons.
The threat cooled what had been an unusual flurry of diplomatic moves from a country that last year carried out a provocative series of weapons tests that had many fearing the region was on the edge of war.
The declaration also underscored South Korea’ s delicate role as an intermediary between the US and North Korea, as well as raising questions over Seoul’ s claim that Mr Kim had a genuine interest in dealing away his nuclear weapons.
Analysts said it was unlikely North Korea intended to scuttle all diplomacy. They suggested it was more likely the country wanted to gain leverage ahead of the talks between Mr Kim and Mr Trump, scheduled for 12 June in Singapore.
R iS on G won, chairman of a North Korean agency that deals with inter- Korean affairs, accused South Korea’s government of being “an ignorant and incompetent group devoid of the elementary sense of the present situation, of any concrete picture of their dialogue partner and of the ability to discern the present trend of the times”.
Mr Son G won said the “extremely adventurous” US-South Korean military drills were practicing strikes on strategic targets in Nor th Korea. He also accused the South of allowing“human scum to hurt the dignity” of the North’s supreme leadership.
Mr SonGwonw asap parently referring to a news conference held at South Korea’s National Assembly on Monday by Thae Yong Ho, a former senior North Korean diplomat who defected to the South in 2016.
Mr Yong Ho said it was highly unlikely Mr Kim would ever fully relinquish his nuclear weapons or agree to a robust verification regime.
Mr Son G won also said it would be difficult to resume talks with South Korea “unless the serious situation which led to the suspension of the NorthS outh high- level talks is settled”.
Hours earlier, South Korea said it was pushing to reset the high- level talks with North Korea. South Korean officials are planning to communicate closely with the US and North Korea to increase the chance sofa successful summit b et ween Mr Trump and Mr Kim on resolving the nuclear stand- off.
The South urged the North to faithfully abide by the agreements reached b et ween Mr Kim and South Korean president MoonJae- in in their summit last month where they issued a vague vow on the “complete denuclearisation” of the peninsula and pledged permanent peace.
Senior officials from the two Koreas were to sit down at a border village on Wednesday to discuss how to implement their leaders’ agreements to reduce military tensions along their heavily fortified border and improve overall ties, but the North cancelled the meeting.
In Washington, Mr Trump said the US had not been notified about the Nor th Korean threat to cancel the summit with Mr Kim.
Annual military drills between Washington and Seoul have long been a major source of contention between the Koreas.
Much larger spring time drills took place last month without the North’ s typically fiery condemnation or accompanying weapons tests, though Washington and Seoul toned down those exercises.