North Korea on Wednesday urged South Korea to refrain from making comments that could dampen inter-Korean ties following the two Koreas’ landmark deal, warning that Seoul’s attitude could push the hard-won conciliatory mood to return to confrontation.
Just one week before the North’s warning, South and North Korea reached a landmark agreement to ease military tension on the Korean Peninsula and resume the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, raising hopes for better ties.
The inter-Korean deal was produced as the two Koreas were on the verge of a military clash following an explosion of North Korean land mines near the inter-Korean border and Seoul’s subsequent resumption of its loudspeaker campaign carrying anti-Pyongyang messages.
North Korea warned Wednesday that South Korea should not make comments that could hamper the hard-won conciliatory atmosphere on the peninsula amid the South’s reports that North Korea effectively apologized for the mine incident blamed on the North.
“The South Korean authorities should not make a foolish misinterpretation of the hard weathering of such crisis on the eve of war and refrain from such act as threatening the hard-won peace,” an unspecified spokesman at the North’s National Defense Committee said in a statement issued in English.
“Misjudgment of the rival would only entail catastrophic consequences in the North-South relations. The South should not forget this even a moment,” he said.
The North expressed “regret” over the land mine explosion that left two South Korean soldiers seriously injured. South Korea has said that the North’s regret is the equivalent of an apology by international standards.
But the North made it clear that its expression of “regret” does not equal an “apology” for the incident, saying that the South is interpreting the meaning of the word to its own advantage.
The North said that “regret” is no more than an expression saying “I am sorry for the case.”
“Nothing will be more shameless than trumpeting about the implementation of the agreement while staging saber-rattling,” the spokesman said.
North Korea warned that at a critical time when the landmark deal should be cherished, South Korea has continued to make comments that could hamper inter-Korean ties.
“Given that the two Koreas barely warned off a possible war, South Korea should neither wrongfully interpret the agreement nor pose a threat to peace,” the spokesman said.
The Ministry of Unification did not rebut the North’s claim while stressing that the two sides should pump up efforts to honor the agreement.
“Now is not the time to argue for and against, but it is the time that the two Koreas should jointly make sincere efforts to implement the agreement,” Jeong Joon-hee, ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing.
Experts said that the timing of the North’s warning message coincided with President Park Geun-hye’s visit to China.
Park arrived in Beijing earlier in the day for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a high-profile ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan in World War II.
It would be the sixth such meeting between the two leaders while Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have not met so far.
“The North’s warning seemed to mean that Park should refrain from making any comments on unification and Seoul should not set the stumbling block to the joint deal,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
Analysts also said that the North’s message is likely to have a limited impact on inter-Korean ties, adding that Pyongyang would not go so far as to break the deal.
“It does not seem that North Korea would move to break the agreement. The North’s message is seen as calling on Seoul to take actions to deter its activists’ launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaign,” said Chang Yong-seok, a researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies under Seoul National University. (Yonhap)
