A North Korean propaganda website targeting the domestic South Korean audience, “Uriminzokkiri” has reasserted the North Korean official stance that the country is prepared to hold talks on the future of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, but that the normalization of operations there is being deliberately hindered by the Ministry of Unification in Seoul.
The attack came after Minister of Unification Ryoo Kihl Jae commented on May 29th that North Korea’s stated desire to engage in talks with private South Korean entities, while avoiding talks with the Seoul government, was hypocritical. To this, Urminzokkiri retorted, “It is unreasonable, and a shameless sophistry unrelated to the facts.”
Ryoo explained that the reason why finished products and raw materials have yet to be removed from the Kaesong Industrial Complex some 60 days after it closed is down to a hostile North Korean state that remains unwilling to negotiate, and that Pyongyang’s ongoing efforts to contact private companies and civil society groups are designed only to foster internecine conflict in South Korea.
However, the Uriminzokkiri piece proclaimed, “We have shown our will to both allow South Chosun industrialists to visit the manufacturing zone and to accept the removal of goods in order to restart and normalize it. We have displayed every sincerity.” The piece thus added that Ryoo’s words mark “brazen excess.”
