The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed overtures by South Korea’s new liberal government, saying Monday that its “blind trust” in the country's alliance with the US and hostility toward North Korea make it no different from its conservative predecessor.
Kim Yo Jong’s comments imply that North Korea — now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia — sees no need to resume diplomacy with South Korea and the US anytime soon. Experts say she likely hopes to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.
“We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.
It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June with a promise to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea.
Lee's government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier.
North Korea has shunned talks with South Korea and the US since leader Kim Jong Un’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals and declared a hostile “two-state” system on the Korean Peninsula to terminate relations with South Korea.
Kim Yo Jong called Lee's steps “sincere efforts” to develop ties, but said the new government still “stands in confrontation” with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-US military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
South Korea's Unification Ministry responded that it will steadfastly seek reconciliation with North Korea to realize peaceful coexistence. Spokesperson Koo Byoungsam told reporters that the statement shows North Korea closely monitors the Lee government's North Korea policy despite deep mistrust.
Moon Seong Mook, an analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said Kim Yo Jong's statement shows North Korea is holding out for South Korea to abandon the US alliance.
Moon said that Kim likely sees little upside in engaging with the South since it cannot restart economic projects that previously benefited the North as long as international sanctions remain in place.
North Korea focuses on Russian ties North Korea built cooperation with Russia, sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war in Ukraine, and likely receiving economic and technological assistance in return.
Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn’t publicly responded to Trump’s overture.
Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said that Kim Yo Jong’s statement had a domestic audience.
“Kim Yo Jong’s comments are an effort to advance national pride by portraying North Korea in a superior position, despite its economic struggles and international pariah status,” Easley said. “She also seeks to justify Pyongyang’s weapons programs and divide Seoul and Washington by criticizing upcoming military exercises.”
Still, there is a limit on what North Korea can get from Russia, and Pyongyang could change course at a major upcoming meeting of the ruling Workers' Party, likely to be held in January, said Kwak Gil Sup, the head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korea affairs.
“I think North Korea may formulate a Plan B and Plan C in relations for South Korea and the US,” Kwak said.
