N Korea rejects South’s offer

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says her country will never accept South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s “foolish” offer of economic benefits in exchange for denuclearisation steps, accusing Seoul of recycling past proposals Pyongyang already rejected. In a commentary published in yesterday’s edition of North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, Kim Yo Jong stressed that her country had no intentions to give away its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programme for economic cooperation, saying “no one barters its destiny for corn cake”. She questioned the sincerity of South Korea’s calls for improved bilateral relations while it continued combined military exercises with the United States and failed to stop civilian activists from flying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets and other “dirty wastes” across the border.