Seoul, Oct 2 (IANS): Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Friday again rejected blame for the recent mine blast inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) and derided Seoul’s call to reduce tensions.
In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), she repeated her earlier denial this week, rejecting the South Korean military’s findings that blamed the North for the blast, which wounded three South Korean soldiers.
South Korea’s military urged Pyongyang to offer an apology and stop fortification work on the border, Yonhap News Agency reported.
“Explaining in a simple and clear way, this is aimed at shutting down the door forever so that we will have nothing to do with the ROK and even wild animals cannot come and go,” she said. ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.
North Korea wants to “cut off the relationship forever” with the South, she added.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung vowed Thursday to keep pressing for practical ways to ease military tensions with North Korea, even as the two Koreas remain at odds over the blast.
“My administration will consistently pursue practical measures to reduce military tensions between the two Koreas,” Lee said at a ceremony marking the 78th Armed Forces Day.
“For the sake of peace on the Korean Peninsula, the two Koreas must find a way to win together and build trust,” he said.
She, however, derided President Lee’s remarks as “the climax of the farce that everyone should watch.”
“Those who wrote the playbook for the farce, directed it and played the actors deserve the precious ‘citation,'” Kim said.
South Korean Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul said Tuesday a North Korean land mine found at the site of last week’s explosion inside the DMZ was a mine buried by North Korean forces, not the one that was washed away.
Kang’s remarks come as the South Korean military on Tuesday found one North Korean resin antipersonnel mine near the site of the September 21 blast south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) separating the two Koreas. The incident left three South Korean soldiers injured, two of them with severe wounds.
“(It was) buried,” Kang said in response to an inquiry by Rep. Yu Yong-weon of the main opposition party, who asked whether the land mine was buried in the ground or the one deemed to have been washed away.
