[ SCMP ] North Korea open to closer ties with Seoul, formal end to Korean war is ‘admirable idea’: Kim Yo-jong
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, says the North is open to “constructive discussion” to mend fences with South Korea if Seoul drops its “hostile attitude” toward Pyongyang.
Speaking on Friday, she also welcomed South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s recent call to declare an end to the Korean war as an “interesting and admirable idea”, raising hopes that diplomacy might resume in the final months of Moon’s term, which ends in May next year.
The South Korean president on Thursday reiterated the call he made at the UN General Assembly earlier this week for a formal end to the 1950-53 conflict. Fighting ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically in a state of war.
“We have willingness to keep our close contacts with the South again, and have constructive discussions with it about the restoration and development of bilateral relations if it is careful about its future language and not hostile toward us,” Kim Yo-jong said, according to the Pyongyang-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“[In the past, South Korea] often provoked us and made far-fetched assertions to find fault with anything done by us out of double-dealing standards,” she said. “The declaration of the termination of the war is an interesting and admirable idea that in it itself is meant to put a physical end to the unstable state of ceasefire.”
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“Only when such a precondition is met would it be possible to sit face to face and declare the significant termination of war and discuss the issue of North-South relations and the future of the Korean peninsula,” she said
Speaking hours before Kim Yo-jong’s comments on Friday, North Korean vice foreign minister Ri Thae-song said Moon’s call to declare a formal end to the war was premature, and argued there was no guarantee it would lead to the withdrawal of Washington’s “hostile policy” toward Pyongyang, according to the KCNA.
Moon later clarified the declaration would serve as an opener to negotiations on replacing the armistice with a peace treaty for the Korean peninsula, which should proceed alongside diplomatic discussions over the denuclearisation of the North.
He added that this would not alter the legal status of the 28,500 American troops stationed in the South, or undermine Seoul’s alliance with the US, and expressed hope that next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing would serve as another chance to reach out to the North.
DPA Notes: Admirable response as well… admirable indeed.