N. Korea Hits S. Korea Again
South Korea does not need to be swayed by North Korea’s rejection of its liaison office proposal, a Cheong Wa Dae spokesman said.
Presidential Spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said Saturday President Lee Myung-bak’s proposal to establish the offices was just aimed at opening a communication channel.
“It is not part of our North Korea policies and therefore, there is no need to give special weight to the rejection,” Lee said in a statement.
He urged Pyongyang to change its attitude, stressing that the South always keeps the door open to the North.
Lee made the overture in an interview with the Washington Post on April 17 during his U.S. trip that the two Koreas set up the high-level diplomatic channel to promote inter-Korean relations.
The Lee government has yet to officially suggest an overture to the North.
North Korea dismissed the proposal, calling it “anti-unification garbage” through its main newspaper, the Rodong Shinmun.
The paper said the proposal is just a trick to shift responsibility for worsened inter-Korean relations and avoid criticism at home and abroad.
North Korea urged the Seoul government to honor the agreements made in the previous two summits in Pyongyang.
The North’s response was expected as it rejected the proposal of setting up liaison offices in each other’s capital cities during high-level inter-Korean talks in the 1990s.
Presently, both two nations have their own offices in the truce village of Panmunjeom.
As the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, the two Koreas technically remain at war.
The two sides significantly improved relations under the Sunshine Policy of engaging North Korea under the liberal administrations led by former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.
Relations have chilled as conservative President Lee vowed a tougher stance toward North Korea over its slow progress in denuclearization and human rights.
Last month, the Stalinist state expelled six South Korean government officials from a joint industrial complex in Gaeseong to protest remarks by Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong.
The minister said it is difficult to expand the complex unless the North solves the nuclear issue.
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