North Korea’s communist regime again threatened South Korea through state-run media, saying on Monday that it will take “retaliatory measures” against Seoul.
The official national propaganda newspaper of North Korea, the Rodong Sinmun, condemned South Korea for its “weakness and incompetence” and threatened to retaliate against South Korean aid groups sending balloons and other means to distribute leaflets to people inside North Korea, which exercises total control over all media and information.
The propaganda outlet said the joint liaison office between North and South Korea, which held the direct phone line between the two countries, would be destroyed. It did not elaborate.
“As was declared, the north-south joint liaison office will come into destruction and the right to taking the next action against the enemy will be entrusted to our army,” the propaganda paper said. “Our invincible revolutionary armed forces will take a resolute action to take avenge on the enemies in order to allay the surging indignation of our people.”
North and South Korea are still technically at war, decades after the Korean War ended in the early 1950s. No peace treaty was ever signed, and the two countries are separated by the heavily guarded Korean Demilitarized Zone.
Over the weekend, following bellicose statements from the isolated regime, South Korean leaders held an emergency meeting.
South Korea’s national security director, Chung Eui-yong, held a meeting with ministers and generals on Sunday. And the country’s Unification Ministry said Pyongyang should honor past agreements, Reuters reported.
About a decade ago, North Korea fired a torpedo at a South Korean vessel, killing 46 sailors. Weeks later, the regime shelled a border island, killing several more. Over the years, North Korea has test-fired rockets into the Pacific Ocean, drawing international condemnation.
