Kim Yo-jong lambasts S. Korean president for provocation remarks

Her statement mentioned South Korean President Moon Jae-in by name and said that North Korea's missile launches were not provocations, but acts of self-defense

Kim Yo-jong, deputy director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (pool photo)

Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, blasted remarks by South Korean President Moon Jae-in about the successful test-launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on Wednesday, warning that it could result in a “total deadlock” in inter-Korean relations.

In a statement published Wednesday by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim said, “South Korean President Moon Jae In reportedly made an improper remark that ‘south Korea's missile power is enough to contain “provocation” from the north’, when inspecting a missile test-launch.”

“If the slip of tongue reportedly made by the ‘president’ is true, it is too stupid one to be fit for the ‘president of a state,’” she continued.

“If even the ‘president’ supports the act of faulting and hurting the dialogue partner, it will naturally result in a corresponding action and then the north-south relations will end up in a total deadlock,” she warned.

She went on to qualify the message, saying that North Korea did not want a complete destruction or deadlock of inter-Korean ties.

“We express very great regret over his thoughtless utterance of the word ‘provocation’ which might be fitting for hack journalists,” she wrote.

Earlier that afternoon, Moon observed the first test launch of an SLBM independently developed with domestic technology, which was conducted at an Agency for Defense Development (ADD) testing site. Afterward, he said, “Increasing our missile firepower can offer a definite deterrent against North Korean provocations.”

Carrying a homegrown submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), South Korea’s 3,000-ton class Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine, moves to complete a test launch on Wednesday. (provided by the Ministry of National Defense)

Kim’s latest statement was notable in that it mentioned Moon Jae-in by name. While Pyongyang has frequently condemned Moon in previous statements, it has typically done so indirectly with references to “South Korean authorities.”

But while the statement singled Moon out by name for criticism, it also avoided the sort of brusque, insulting language seen in past statements with references to a “boiled head of a cow” or “frightened dog.” In other words, Kim toned down her invective even as she mentioned Moon specifically.

Kim, who oversees inter-Korean relations for North Korea, released the statement expressing her objections on Wednesday evening, only four hours after Moon’s remarks were made public — a sign of how displeased Pyongyang was by them.

Kim’s statement also said that North Korea’s own ballistic missile test launch the same day was not a “provocation.”

“We [in North Korea] are not aiming to make ‘provocation’ against somebody at a certain time as presumed by south Korea. What we did is part of normal and self-defensive action to carry out the key task for the first year of the five-year plan for the development of defence science and weapon system in order to implement the decisions made at our Party Congress [in January],” she said.

“Explicitly speaking, it is nothing different from the ‘mid-term defence plan’ of south Korea,” she said.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, senior staff writer

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