To understand the bluntness of the response, the situation should be viewed through the eyes of Pyongyang. For decades, North Korea's posture toward the South has remained largely consistent, anchored in the Juche ideology and the unbroken rule of the Kim family. Meanwhile, South Korea has changed course repeatedly as power shifted back and forth between liberal and conservative presidents. From Pyongyang's point of view, these swings, from engagement to hostility and back again, have made the South an unreliable and ideologically confused counterpart.
The Yoon Suk Yeol administration, which preceded Lee, made no attempt to engage with the North. According to findings from a recent government probe, Yoon allegedly authorized drones to be flown toward Pyongyang in what is now being interpreted as a calculated provocation. Against that backdrop, Lee's sudden shift, talks of peace, resumed humanitarian gestures, and even murmurs of a possible invitation to the upcoming APEC summit, may appear hypocritical to the North.
Kim Yo-jong made that sentiment clear in her statement. Referring to the suspension of loudspeaker broadcasts and the halt of anti-North leaflets, she wrote, "It is not the work worthy of appreciation." She added that these were not acts of goodwill but mere reversals of mistakes Seoul had "voluntarily invited."
She also mocked South Korea's new Unification Minister, Chung Dong-young, for his remarks about opening a "time of reconciliation and cooperation," calling it a "daydream." His suggestion that someone from the North might be invited to attend the APEC summit in Gyeongju was met with scorn.
Kim dismissed the idea that the character of inter-Korean relations could be reset with "a few sentimental words" and declared that "there can be no change in our state's understanding of the enemy."
"The true nature of the ROK politician who is surely enslaved to the departed spirit of unification by absorption can not be changed," she said, adding that the Ministry of Unification "must be dissolved."
Although Lee Jae-myung came into office pledging to rebuild ties with Pyongyang, the North's position could not be clearer. They are not listening. "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," Kim stated. Her final message left little room for ambiguity. The relationship between the two Koreas, she said, has "irreversibly gone beyond the time zone of the concept of homogeneous."
reporter
Im Yoon-seo
lyseo0330@ajupress.com
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