North Korea on Friday denounced South Korean President Park Geun-hye's first visit to the United States and summit with U.S. President Barack Obama as a prelude to war aimed at escalating conflict with her countrymen.
Park was headed home Friday after wrapping up her five-day trip to the United States. The visit to Washington and her meeting with Obama marked her first overseas tour since taking office in February.
The spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), responding to a question raised by the Korean Central News Agency, described the working visit by South Korea's chief executive as a "junket" tour that strained tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the surrounding region.
"It is a curtain-raiser to a dangerous war to invade the DPRK," the North's official news wire service said, citing the official.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
The media outlet monitored in Seoul also said that the CPRK official made clear Park's calls for inter-Korean confidence building is nothing more than a new version of the "nukes, opening and 3,000 dollar" policy pursued by former President Lee Myung-bak.
Lee said Seoul will help increase the North's per capita income to US$3,000 only if the country gives up its nuclear weapons program.
"Her 'confidence process' means south Korea cannot tolerate the north's access to nukes and there can be no reward for its provocation and threat and it will be forced to pay a price for its provocation," the CPRK official asserted. He said this translates into "self-recognition" of the fact that her stance on key issues is nothing more than a "policy of confrontation."
Pyongyang has said on numerous occasions that it will never give up its nuclear weapons or its long-range missile capability, and that as long as the United States maintains its nuclear arsenal, it will do the same.
In addition, the news report said Park slandered the DPRK's line that calls for simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of its nuclear force by terming it an "impossible goal" and calling on its leadership to make the right choices.
The official for the committee that handles inter-Korean relations said Pyongyang is patiently watching Seoul and its policymakers.
"The south's policymakers are the ones that need to make the right choices," he countered adding calls by Seoul that Pyongyang should change are unacceptably arrogant.
The latest media report marks the first time Pyongyang specifically blasted the South Korea-U.S. summit that took place a little over two days ago.
Related to the North's latest attacks Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk countered that claims made by the CPRK did not reflect the reality and the country should halt its outdated practice of lashing out at the South.
He pointed out that the North's call that it will only discuss its nuclear capability in the broader realm of global denuclearization efforts overlooked the international community's verdict expressed by the U.N. Security Council's sanctions resolution passed on March 7.
Kim added that Seoul could not accept allegations that President Park's confidence building process as being confrontational because it clearly states that South Korea wants to expand exchange and cooperation that can lead to sustainable peace of the Korean Peninsula.
Private North Korea watchers in Seoul, meanwhile, said that judging by the harsh words used, the North will probably not take steps to ease cross-border tensions that have risen following the communist country's third nuclear test and saber rattling tactics employed over the past few months. Many, however, concurred that Pyongyang will probably not take extreme measures to ratchet up tensions such as firing off missiles or engaging in localized clashes like the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in late 2010 that left four people dead.
The North threatened to launch nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States, and pulled its 53,000 workers from the Kaesong Industrial Complex that had been the last remaining symbol of South-North rapprochement early last month. All activity at the complex came to a halt with the last South Korean personnel crossing over the demilitarized zone that separates the two country a week ago.
On the other hand, some experts said the CPRK spokesman's comments on exercising patience to see what choices Seoul makes can be a sign that the North has not written off the possibility of improving cross-border relations. This assessment, if true, means the North can be persuaded to come to the negotiating table if Seoul and Washington creates a favorable atmosphere.
"With its main ally China taking steps to penalize the North, the communist country will probably not pursue hard-line measures but see how South Korea and the United States handle the situation," said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. (Yonhap news)
