ID :
31722
Sat, 11/22/2008 - 22:41
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/31722
The shortlink copeid
N. Korea vows to retaliate against Seoul's 'confrontational' policy
SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Saturday that it will go ahead with its plan to retaliate against South Korea unless Seoul changes its "confrontational policy" toward the communist country.
The North made the threat as it harshly criticized South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak for making remarks in Washington earlier this week that he will try to
unify the divided Korean Peninsula under the South's free democracy.
"The option of the DPRK has become clear as the developments have proved that
there is no room to discuss the inter-Korean relationship and reunification
issues with the Lee group as it is steeped in the anti-DPRK confrontational
hysteria to the marrow of its bones," the North's Committee for the Peaceful
Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement, using the country's
official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"The DPRK, therefore, is left with no option but to resolutely counter the group,
as it had already declared, now that the group keeps to the road of reckless and
dangerous confrontation with the DPRK, far from drawing a lesson from its
treacherous and criminal act of pushing the inter-Korean relations to a
collapse," said the statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central
News Agency, monitored in Seoul.
In a meeting with South Korean correspondents based in Washington after a summit
of G-20, Lee said South Korea's ultimate goal is to reunify the Korean Peninsula
under free democracy.
North Korea denounced Lee's remarks as tantamount to a declaration of war against
it.
Inter-Korean relations have chilled since South Korea's conservative government
of Lee took office in February with a vow to get tough on North Korea.
North Korea is especially angry at Seoul's reluctance to carry out a spate of
cross-border economic projects that were agreed on between leaders of the two
sides in 2000 and 2007. Those projects would require massive South Korean
investment in the impoverished communist state.
Earlier this month, North Korea declared that it will strictly restrict border
crossings starting Dec. 1 in protest at Lee's policy. The North already closed
its Red Cross mission and telephone links with South Korea at the truce village
of Panmunjom.
North Korea has also vented anger at the spreading of anti-Pyongyang leaflets by
balloons by South Korean activist groups.
Seoul has asked those activist groups to discontinue such activities but they
refused to comply with.
Attention is focused in South Korea on what action North Korea would take next.
Many worry that it may be against a South Korean-funded factory complex in the
communist country.
Currently, 83 small-sized South Korean garment and other labor-intensive plants
are operating at the complex at the North's border city of Kaesong with about
35,000 North Korean workers employed.
The statement said Lee cannot be free from the responsibility for bringing
"irreversible" harm onto the Korean peninsula by pursuing what the North called
confrontational policy.
sshim@yna.co.kr
The North made the threat as it harshly criticized South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak for making remarks in Washington earlier this week that he will try to
unify the divided Korean Peninsula under the South's free democracy.
"The option of the DPRK has become clear as the developments have proved that
there is no room to discuss the inter-Korean relationship and reunification
issues with the Lee group as it is steeped in the anti-DPRK confrontational
hysteria to the marrow of its bones," the North's Committee for the Peaceful
Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement, using the country's
official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"The DPRK, therefore, is left with no option but to resolutely counter the group,
as it had already declared, now that the group keeps to the road of reckless and
dangerous confrontation with the DPRK, far from drawing a lesson from its
treacherous and criminal act of pushing the inter-Korean relations to a
collapse," said the statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central
News Agency, monitored in Seoul.
In a meeting with South Korean correspondents based in Washington after a summit
of G-20, Lee said South Korea's ultimate goal is to reunify the Korean Peninsula
under free democracy.
North Korea denounced Lee's remarks as tantamount to a declaration of war against
it.
Inter-Korean relations have chilled since South Korea's conservative government
of Lee took office in February with a vow to get tough on North Korea.
North Korea is especially angry at Seoul's reluctance to carry out a spate of
cross-border economic projects that were agreed on between leaders of the two
sides in 2000 and 2007. Those projects would require massive South Korean
investment in the impoverished communist state.
Earlier this month, North Korea declared that it will strictly restrict border
crossings starting Dec. 1 in protest at Lee's policy. The North already closed
its Red Cross mission and telephone links with South Korea at the truce village
of Panmunjom.
North Korea has also vented anger at the spreading of anti-Pyongyang leaflets by
balloons by South Korean activist groups.
Seoul has asked those activist groups to discontinue such activities but they
refused to comply with.
Attention is focused in South Korea on what action North Korea would take next.
Many worry that it may be against a South Korean-funded factory complex in the
communist country.
Currently, 83 small-sized South Korean garment and other labor-intensive plants
are operating at the complex at the North's border city of Kaesong with about
35,000 North Korean workers employed.
The statement said Lee cannot be free from the responsibility for bringing
"irreversible" harm onto the Korean peninsula by pursuing what the North called
confrontational policy.
sshim@yna.co.kr
