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| From left are former President Kim Dae-jung (1924-2009), North Korea's former leader Kim Jong-il and former South Korean first lady Lee Hee-ho (1922-2019) at the Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, two days before the June 15 Joint Inter-Korean Declaration, in this June 13, 2000 photo. After Lee passed away on Monday, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un sent a letter of condolences delivered by his sister Kim Yo-jong to the South's National Security Office director Chung Eui-yong at the inter-Korean border, Wednesday. Korea Times file |
By Jung Da-min
North Korea's propaganda outlet Uriminzokkiri published an article Friday calling for reconciliation and confidence-building between the Koreas, a day ahead of the 19th anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration signed between then-President Kim Dae-jung and then-leader of the North, Kim Jong-il.
The article urged South Korea to stop conducting its joint military exercises with the United States, calling them continuous covert hostile activities against the North's regime.
It said the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises hinder the two Koreas from engaging in dialogue and cooperation, at a critical time where the inter-Korean relationship is at a crossroads between improvement and deterioration.
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"While (the South is) talking about dialogue and cooperation in our face, the joint exercises with foreign forces which go against the same people and the spirit of the inter-Korean agreements are taking place in the back, spreading the smell of gunpowder to the North almost every day," the Uriminzokkiri article said.
The release of the article came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong delivered his letter of condolences on the death of former South Korean first lady Lee Hee-ho, former President Kim Dae-jung's widow who died on Monday. National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong led a delegation of South Korean officials to accept it at a brief meeting at the inter-Korean border, Wednesday, which also marked the one-year anniversary of the first North Korea-U.S. summit.
North Korean media have been publishing a series of articles blaming the South for not implementing the inter-Korean agreements reached last year through three inter-Korean summits between President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.
They have claimed the South's joint military exercises with the U.S. go against the agreements to ease military tensions and have slammed the South for not seeking to resume inter-Korean economic cooperation to comply with the international sanctions against the North, which it described as indiscriminate actions mainly led by the U.S. to bring the North into submission.
