Credit...Korean Central News Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
North Korea Rejects New South Korean Leader’s Peace Overtures
In its first comment on President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea, North Korea dismissed a call for dialogue, dampening hopes of a new chapter in relations.
by https://www.nytimes.com/by/choe-sang-hun · NY TimesNorth Korea on Monday rejected the new South Korean president’s proposal for talks, saying that his policy toward the North was no different than that of his ousted predecessor, under whom relations had plunged to the lowest point in years.
Since taking office on June 4, President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea has repeatedly said that he wanted to ease tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula by improving ties that deteriorated under his conservative predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol.
As gestures of good will, Mr. Lee banned anti-North Korean activists from sending leaflets into the North by balloon. He also stopped the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border that had long angered Pyongyang. Earlier this month, South Korea even switched off shortwave radio broadcasts that had carried similar propaganda for over a half century.
But such efforts by Mr. Lee were “not the work worthy of appreciation,” said Kim Yo-jong, who speaks for her brother, Kim Jong-un, the top leader of North Korea, in a statement carried in North Korean state media on Monday.
“No matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither the reason to meet nor the issue to be discussed with the ROK,” Ms. Kim said, using the acronym for the South’s official name, Republic of Korea.
She cited the South Korean government’s ongoing alliance with the United States and the countries’ plans to continue holding annual joint military drills as evidence of little change under the new administration.
Ms. Kim’s remarks on Monday were North Korea’s first official comment on how it perceived the new government in the South.
South Korea sought to downplay the significance of the statement by Ms. Kim, saying that the government would continue its efforts to promote reconciliation and cooperation. A South Korean government spokesman, Koo Byoung-sam, said that the remarks from the North “showed how high the wall of distrust has become in South-North Korean relations.”
Analysts have warned that the growing military and economic cooperation between North Korea and Russia has made Mr. Kim less interested in engaging with Seoul or Washington than seven years ago, when Mr. Kim met both the South Korean leader and President Trump. Last year, Mr. Kim and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia revived a Cold War-era alliance, and under that pact, the North has sent troops and more weapons to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.
But since Mr. Lee took office, some in South Korea have voiced cautious optimism that Mr. Kim might return to the negotiating table.
Ms. Kim’s statement on Monday dampened any such hopes.
In her statement, Ms. Kim also accused South Korean officials of “spinning a daydream” after some of them raised the possibility that Mr. Kim might be able to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to be held in Gyeongju, South Korea, in late October. South Korea hopes that both Mr. Trump and President Xi Jinping of China will attend the gathering.
During his first term in the White House, Mr. Trump became the first American president to meet the North Korean leader, exchanging what he called “love letters” with Mr. Kim. But their diplomacy collapsed in 2019 when their second summit meeting ended without an agreement over how quickly North Korea should roll back its nuclear weapons program and when Washington should lift international sanctions imposed on the country.
Mr. Kim has since shifted his approach, shunning all talks with Washington and doubling down on increasing his nuclear arsenal. North Korea has also turned cold toward South Korea, which had helped mediate meetings between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump.
In 2020, North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korean city of Kaesong in a dramatic gesture of cutting dialogue with the South. After Mr. Yoon, a hawk on North Korea, took office in 2022, relations worsened. Mr. Kim said he would no longer consider South Korea a potential partner for reunification but treat it as an enemy that must be subjugated — with nuclear weapons, if necessary — should war break out.
On Monday, Ms. Kim reaffirmed that policy. But she did not comment directly on Mr. Trump or the United States.
Since his return to the White House, Mr. Trump has expressed interest in engaging with Mr. Kim. But neither Mr. Kim nor his government has responded, raising speculation among some analysts that Mr. Kim might eventually meet Mr. Trump again only if Washington offered the right incentives.
Mr. Lee, for his part, has vowed to strengthen Seoul’s alliance with Washington and promised to continue working with the United States and Japan to help counter China and North Korea.