Leaders of South Korea convened for an emergency meeting after Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened the nation with military action. “Rubbish must be thrown into the dustbin,” Kim Yo Jong, was quoted as saying in a Bloomberg report.
Kim Yo further said it is, “high time” to break relations with South Korean authorities. She also said, “By exercising my power authorized by the Supreme Leader, our party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with the enemy to decisively carry out the next action”.
In a statement to the state’s official news agency KCNA, she said, It's better to take a series of retaliatory measures rather than release statements condemning South Korea's behaviour, and which could be misinterpreted or dismissed. The behaviour she was referring to was related to defectors in the North and the South sending food and propaganda to the country.
Tensions between the North and the South had been escalating ever since Trump’s meeting with North’s leader Kim Jong Un abruptly ended in February 2019. North was not approving of US military exercises in the South. The North was also not happy with the US proposition to lift sanctions only if the North denuclearise fully.
According to experts, Pyongyang is frustrated over a lack of progress in nuclear talks with the Trump administration. When tensions between the North and the US were on the rise, South Korea had offered help to restore dialogue while pledging to improve its relations with North Korea.
North Korea this week cut off communication links set up two years ago with Seoul, which it accused of allowing hostile acts by failing to stop the activists.
While the ‘Sunshine Policy’ helped cool tensions, it was also criticized for providing North Korean leaders with the cash needed to build up its nuclear-weapons program.
Post Kim Yo Jong’s statements, South Korea’s national security director, Chung Eui-yong, held an emergency video conference Sunday morning with ministers in charge of security and military generals.
The Unification Ministry, said, “The South and the North should try to honour all inter-Korean agreements reached.” The South’s Defense Ministry said separately it was prepared to retaliate to any attack from the North.
In parliament, Moon Jae-in’s progressive camp is looking to advance a symbolic resolution urging cooperation on the peninsula and an official end to the 1950-53 Korean, which was halted by an armistice and not a peace treaty, even as the conformist opposition criticised the move would make South Korea look weak. Jae-in will meet his top aides on Monday to discuss the divided peninsula and the possible outcomes for the conflict.
North Korean officials in the meantime, 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 ‘US threats’.
