In what analysts have adjudged a significant gesture, Kim Yo Jong, an influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong has disclosed that her country is willing to resume talks with South Korea if conditions are met and the South drops its “hostile” stance.
In a statement obtained by newsmen, she indicated that her nation wants Seoul to persuade Washington to relax crippling economic sanctions.
Kim’s remarks came days after North Korea performed its first missile tests in six months, which some experts said were intended to show it would keep boosting its arsenal if the US-led sanctions stayed while nuclear diplomacy remains dormant.
While offering the talks, she dismissed South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s call, issued in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, for a political declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War as a way to bring peace to the peninsula.
The statement said “Smiling a forced smile, reading the declaration of the termination of the war, and having photos taken could be essential for somebody, but I think that they would hold no water and would change nothing, given the existing inequality, serious contradiction there from and hostilities”
“Under such a situation it does not make any sense to declare the end of the war with all the things, which may become a seed of a war between parties that have been at odds for more than half a century, left intact”.
In her words, North Korea is willing to restore “constructive” talks with South Korea to discuss how to improve and repair strained ties under certain conditions.
She said “What needs to be dropped is the double-dealing attitudes, illogical prejudice, bad habits and hostile stand of justifying their own acts while faulting our just exercise of the right to self-defence”.
“Only when such a precondition is met, would it be possible to sit face to face and declare the significant termination of war and discuss the issue of the north-south relations and the future of the Korean peninsula.”
In a swift reaction, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it is carefully reviewing Kim Yo Jong’s statement. A ministry statement said South Korea will continue its efforts to restore ties with North Korea.
Also, South Korea disclosed that it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test on September 15 hours after North Korea fired two missiles.
It should be noted that North Korea and the US are still technically at war because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
