South Korea warns North not to meddle in election

The South Korean government says that North Korea is attempting to divide South Korean society by blaming the escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula, including threats of imminent attack, on the Yoon Suk Yeol government.

North Korea leader Kim Jong-un at a New Year's event. [KOREA CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY/YONHAP]

The South Korean government has issued a warning to North Korea against meddling in the upcoming parliamentary election in April especially by attempting to divide society through threats.

"North Korea is trying to split our society into two by elevating tension on the Peninsula through threats and criticisms made [by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un] at the year-end Central Committee of the Workers’ Party meeting and by the statement made by [Kim’s sister] Kim Jo-yon on Tuesday," a South Korean Unification Ministry official said Thursday. "North Korea's behavior is part of a strategy to undermine our free democratic system, which North Korea has consistently pursued."

The official said North Korea is trying to blame the Yoon Suk Yeol government for its shift to a hardline stance.

Kim Jong-un, during last year's Central Committee of the Workers' Party meeting, said North Korea needs to prepare for taking over the entire Korean Peninsula while labeling the South as a hostile country and ending the fraternal relationship.

Kim's sister, Kim Yo-jong, criticized both the incumbent President Yoon Suk Yeol and his liberal predecessor Moon Jae-in.

However, in a comparison with Moon, Kim Yo-jong blamed Yoon for North Korea's increasing military strength.

"They are trying to split us [South Korea] into two," the ministry official said. "However, Kim Jong-un regime’s policy on South Korea and their view of unification has been the same even before the current [South Korean] administration was launched."

North Korea has not engaged in dialogue with South Korea since the breakdown of the summit with then U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in 2019 and further severed ties when it blew up the liaison office in Kaesong in 2020.

These events occurred before the Yoon government took office in May 2022.

The ministry official said that this is not the first time North Korea has attempted to influence South Korean elections through psychological warfare.

"During the election in 2016, North Korea jammed GPS navigation systems near the border, and during the election in 2020, it fired multiple ballistic missiles," the official said.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]