The Ministry of Unification has reacted with disappointment to North Korea’s dismissal of President Lee’s so-called ‘Berlin proposal’, under which Kim Jong Il would be offered the chance to attend the second Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul during March next year.
“Such an attitude from the North will not help ameliorate inter-Korean relations,” an official with the Ministry said today.
A spokesperson for North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (NKCPRF), in an interview with the Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA) yesterday, chastised President Lee as a “traitor” and proclaimed, “Asserting denuclearization as a precondition for dialogue is a rash attempt to fulfill its ambition to invade the North along with the United States, having disarmed us.”
“From the government’s perspective, it is rather saddening that they would brand President Lee a ‘traitor’,” the official commented. However, he added, “From the perspective of the government, there seems to be no value in dealing with North Korean slander delivered through the NKCPRF.”
The North also criticized President Lee’s proposal for another reason, namely that “the South talks about holding nuclear summits and such like, having made South Chosun the world’s biggest outpost of nuclear war and arsenal of nuclear weapons.”
Meanwhile, the North added of South Korea’s calls for it to take responsibility for the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island attacks, “It revealed their ugly intention to refuse to discuss the matter and instead oppose the North to the end.”
The latest outburst raises the possibility that the North may be tiring of its new year’s charm offensive, and could be planning to move to a confrontational posture.
Chongryon (the General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan) commented through Chosun Shinbo yesterday, “President Lee Myung Bak’s ‘Seoul Invitation’ suggestion was a dirty attempt to try and connect forcefully two different issues.”
Currently, the South Korean government is awaiting a formal response from North Korea on the Berlin proposal, which calls on it to cast aside its nuclear weapons in order to gain entry to the Nuclear Security Summit.
The Ministry official concluded, “Though we are awaiting a response from the North, we, as of yet, see no great difference. We can be sure that there have been no actual changes that move towards nuclear disarmament.”
