NKorea urges SKorea to abandon hostile policy*
June 14, 2011
North Korea warned South Korea on Tuesday it should immediately end a confrontational approach toward the North that could lead to war.
A senior North Korean official spoke about Korean relations in an interview with Associated Press Television News in Pyongyang after the North commemorated a historic summit in 2000 between the leaders of the two Koreas.
“Confrontation ends in war and the only ones to suffer will be the Korean people,’’ said Min Gum Song from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. “So the South Korean authorities should withdraw their confrontational policies at an early date.’’
Min said North Korea is willing to cooperate with anyone concerned about the future of the Korean people, so the fate of inter-Korean ties completely depends on how South Korea acts.
During the national meeting, senior Workers’ Party official Yang Hyong Sop said all Koreans should get united to “smash the vicious attempts’’ by South Korea to escalate tension with North Korea, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
The meeting was held on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the signing of a joint rapprochement declaration between the leaders of the two Koreas following their summit in Pyongyang.
Ties between the Koreas were strained last year by two deadly attacks Seoul blames on Pyongyang. North Korea recently threatened to attack South Korea to protest its soldiers’ use of photos of the North’s ruling family as targets during firing drills.
The Koreas are technically still at war after the 1950s Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
* Url:http://articles.boston.com/2011-06-14/news/29657404_1_1950s-korean-war-north-korea-historic-summit
