SEOUL: The sister of North Korea’s leader has warned of retaliatory measures against South Korea that could involve the military, in the latest escalation of tensions over defectors from the North who have been sending back propaganda and food.
Kim Yo-jong, who serves unofficially as one of Kim Jong-un’s top aides, issued the warning in a statement carried by the state news agency KCNA on Saturday.
“Rubbish must be thrown into dustbin. … By exercising my power authorised by the Supreme Leader, our Party and the state, I gave an instruction to the … department in charge of the affairs with (the) enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” the statement said.
“Before long, a tragic scene of the useless north-south joint liaison office completely collapsed would be seen.”
The statement comes a little over a week after she warned that Pyongyang may scrap a military pact with the South and shut down the Kaesong special economic zone as well as the liaison office located there if Seoul fails to prevent defectors from scattering leaflets critical of the North.
The threat came days after South Korea took legal action against defectors who have been sending material such as rice and anti-North leaflets, usually by balloon over the heavily fortified border or in bottles by sea.
North Korea has been angered by the defectors and to mark its displeasure, it has in the past week severed inter-Korean hotlines and is threatening to close the liaison office between the two governments.
As part of the effort to improve ties with the North, South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s administration has sought to discourage the leaflet and rice campaigns, and defectors have complained of pressure to avoid criticism of North Korea.
Analysts say North Korea appears to be using the leaflet issue to increase pressure on South Korea amid stalled denuclearisation talks.
“The leaflets are an excuse or justification to raise the ante, manufacture a crisis, and bully Seoul to get what it wants,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, a Belgium-based independent non-profit organisation.
The inflammatory comments from Kim Yo-jong came on the 20th anniversary of the first meeting between top leaders of the divided Koreas. The summit on June 13, 2000 was the biggest moment of then-President Kim Dae-jung’s reconciliation effort that led to stepped up trade and joint projects and helped earn the South Korean leader the Nobel Peace Prize.
While that “Sunshine Policy” helped cool tensions, it was also criticised for providing North Korean leaders with cash needed to build up its nuclear weapons programme.
North Korean officials are also lashing out at South Korea for lacking a fresh solution to revive nuclear talks, and said the country will continue to strengthen its force to deal with what it called US threats.
“If they want to deal with us, they will have to approach us after racking their brains and finding a different method,” Foreign Ministry official Kwon Jong-gun said in a separate statement released on Saturday via KCNA.
“We will continue to build up our force in order to overpower the persistent threats from the US, and such efforts of ours are in fact continuing at this point of time.”
The US and North Korea have remained far apart on ways to achieve denuclearisation. As tensions between the two sides rise, South Korea has offered help to restore dialogue while pledging to improve its own relations with North Korea.
North Korea says its nuclear arms serve as a deterrent against the US and that Washington must ease its sanctions before denuclearisation can take place. The US demands North Korea abandon its arms ambitions before restrictions can ease.
Marking the second anniversary of the 2018 meeting between Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said the US had broken its word and dashed hopes for denuclearisation.
“Nothing is more hypocritical than an empty promise,” Ri was quoted as saying in a KCNA report on Friday, adding the US has shown it’s aiming for the “isolation and suffocation” of North Korea.
