hankyoreh

Mar. 5. (image captured from a Korean Central Television broadcast)

By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer

“If you want dialogue and negotiations, stop hostile actions against the North,” said the Supreme Command of the (North Korean) People’s Army on Apr. 16. The next step is to wait and see whether the move will lead to acceptance or rejection of dialogue.

The Supreme Command published what it called an “ultimatum” intended for the government of South Korea, the North Korean government-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. “If the South Korean authorities sincerely want talks and negotiations, they must apologize for all of the hostile actions they have dared to take against the North until now and show the entire Korean people that they are committed to actually stop taking such actions,” the notice said.

“If atrocities that slander the name of our supreme leader continue to occur, our retaliatory action will commence,” the Supreme Command also said. “A military show of force of our revolutionary weaponry will begin immediately.”

This threat appears to be a response to a few members of an organization of conservatives and North Korean defectors who gathered in front of the KT Building in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, on Apr. 15 and burned an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Regarding the North Korean remarks, a senior Blue House official said, “The South Korean government has stopped conservative organizations from launching leaflets into North Korea. The burning of the effigy was not ordered by the government, but was rather done by a few members of a civic organization. It is unnecessary to respond to each and every event of this sort.”

The South Korean government retorted that North Korean authorities are responding with excessive sensitivity even though they are aware that the South Korean government is not connected with the actions of these conservative organizations.

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