The governor of Gyeonggi Province, Kim Moon Soo has responded to claims made yesterday by North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland in which it asserted that Kim, as well as fellow Saenuri Party political figures Park Geun Hye and Chung Mong Joon, made “stunning” pro-North Korea statements during an alleged 2002 visit to Pyongyang.

Kim, speaking on a KBS Radio program this morning, said, “The South Chosun people are hearing what I say every single day and my every move is publicized. Yes I have been to Kaesong, Mt. Geumgang etc in North Korea, but I’ve never been to Pyongyang so I have no idea what kind of stunning statement I could have made.”

“I have said that ’South and North must undertake peaceful exchanges’ and ‘If they open and reform like China the people’s lives would be better and isn’t that good’, but what is wrong with that?” he went on.

“They aren’t going to fool me with their threats and menaces, and which of our people would be stunned by North Korea’s hackneyed threats and menaces?” he concluded. “The Republic of Korea isn’t going to be fooled by North Korea’s threats.”