Kim Yo-jong continues verbal attack against South, tells presidential adviser to 'shut his mouth'

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Thursday warned the South to stop interfering with its fortification efforts and called out a South Korean presidential aide, according to a new English-language statement released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim Byung-joo, South Korea’s special presidential adviser on defense policy, criticized Kim Yo-jong for “shamelessly attempting to shift the blame” for last month’s land mine explosion in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in a Facebook post on Wednesday. He also urged the North to apologize for its provocations against the South.

In response, Kim Yo-jong said that Kim Byung-joo “should not talk incoherently but shut his mouth at once."

Kim Yo-jong has verbally attacked the South in back-to-back statements released on Wednesday and Thursday, in which she refers to Seoul as the “most despicable and disgusting enemy in the world,” “armed gangsters bereft of reason” and “shameless, ignorant, unreasonable and illogical under-wits.”

She has also repeatedly justified North Korea’s fortification efforts along its southern border, saying that once it is completed, “the danger of military conflict between [North Korea] and [South Korea] will be considerably lowered, and many complicated problems will be solved.”

She added that propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts aimed at South Korea would be ready within the next couple of days. In an earlier statement released on Wednesday, she said that the broadcasts would resume by the end of October.

The two Koreas have not exchanged loudspeaker broadcasts for 16 months, with the South halting its broadcasts and dismantling its loudspeakers in August last year.

Kim Yo-jong and Pak Jong-chon, an adviser to the North’s ministry of national defense, inspected construction sites involved in the fortification work on Wednesday morning.

Tensions between the two Koreas have heightened since last month, when two South Korean soldiers were injured by a land mine in the DMZ, near the inter-Korean border. The South Korean military has since ruled that the explosive was deliberately planted by North Korea and constituted a violation of the Armistice Agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea has continued to deny responsibility for the incident.

South Korea has also fired warning shots near the military demarcation line (MDL) as “legitimate defensive measures” intended to prevent North Korean troops from crossing over the MDL.

Following Kim Yo-jong’s latest statement, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification responded in a statement on Thursday, urging North Korea to stop any actions that “heighten the risk of tensions and clashes” and “establish a communication channel between the two Koreas for peaceful management [regarding their position on the MDL] as soon as possible.”

“Just over a year ago, the two Koreas experienced the unbearable suffering caused by the loudspeaker broadcasts, inflicted on residents on both sides,” the ministry said, adding, “We must not repeat these mistakes.”

When loudspeaker broadcasts were in operation, North Korean troops blasted bizarre noises, such as the sounds of metal scraping and ghostly wails, rather than regime propaganda. Residents along the border areas, including Paju, Gimpo and Yeoncheon in Gyeonggi, reportedly complained of the racket.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said on Thursday that it plans to send a letter to the United Nations Security Council to call on North Korea to apologize for the DMZ mine blast incident and take responsibility for its violation of the armistice.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]