Kim Yo Jong: "No meeting with South Korea... Lee is no different from his predecessor"

First official statement on inter-Korean policy under the Lee Jae-myung administration... "Deluded fantasy" regarding the possibility of inviting Kim Jong Un to the APEC meeting

"Blind faith in ROK-US alliance and confrontational intent" still criticized... "Stopping inter-Korean broadcasts is not something to be praised"

Kim Yo Jong, Deputy Director of the Workers' Party of Korea [Yonhap News Agency file photo]

Kim Yo Jong, Deputy Director of the Workers' Party of Korea, stated on the 28th, "We have no interest in any policies formulated or proposals made in Seoul, and we once again clearly state our official position that there will be no meetings or discussions with South Korea."

The Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim stated this in a statement titled, "Inter-Korean relations have completely moved beyond the temporal concept of being of the same nation."

He emphasized, "No matter how much the Lee Jae-myung administration pretends to be of the same nation and makes a great fuss as if doing all sorts of just things to attract our attention and gain international acclaim, there can be no change in our country's perception of South Korea as an enemy, and the hands of the clock of history that fundamentally changed the nature of inter-Korean relations cannot be turned back."

Regarding the Lee Jae-myung administration, Kim assessed, "Looking at the fact that they have put forward the normalization of the Ministry of Unification, which should be abolished, as a task of the era, along with the reality of inter-Korean relations being permanently solidified as state-to-state relations on the Korean Peninsula, it can be confirmed once again that the true colors of South Korean politicians, who are mentally held captive by the ghost of unification through absorption, can never change."

He further asserted, "Even in the first 50-odd days of Lee Jae-myung's presidency, while they may have uttered sweet-sounding rhetoric about easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula and improving inter-Korean relations, their blind faith in the ROK-US alliance and their confrontational intent towards us are no different from their predecessors."

He criticized the government's suspension of inter-Korean broadcasts, stating, "All of these are self-inflicted problems for South Korea, and whatever measures they take will be their own affair. It is merely reversing what should not have been done in the first place," and added, "It is not something to be praised."

He pointed out that if South Korea, which in the past unilaterally declared our country as the enemy and fostered an extreme atmosphere of confrontation, now expected to reverse all the self-inflicted consequences with a few sentimental words, it would be a "huge miscalculation."

Kim criticized the possibility of inviting Chairman Kim to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju as a "deluded fantasy."

Kim's statement is the first official position taken towards the Lee Jae-myung administration. Previously, North Korea had only reported the outcomes of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's martial law and impeachment, and President Lee's election, without any official comment.

With North Korea's first official statement towards the Lee Jae-myung administration devaluing any conciliatory gestures and declaring no willingness to dialogue, difficulties are anticipated for the government's efforts to improve inter-Korean relations. Yonhap News Agency