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In a statement issued by the policy bureau of the National Defense Commission on Jan. 25, North Korea once again urged South Korea to create the atmosphere and conditions for inter-Korean dialogue by ending the US-ROK joint military exercises and by blocking the launch of balloons filled with anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets.

“The South Korean authorities need to know that this is a time when a single meaningful act will speak louder than a hundred flowery words,” the statement said.

“The South Korean authorities are currently making a lot of noise about inter-Korean dialogue and improving relations with the North, but the actions that they are taking completely contradict their words,” the statement said.

“Having made it clear that it will go forward with the Key Resolve joint military exercises as planned, [the South Korean government] is hinting that it will continue to provide implicit support for the reckless launch of propaganda balloons, while it brings the American bastards into its plot against our republic,” the statement explained, criticizing the South Korean authorities.

In the statement, Pyongyang complained that the South Korean government has been bashing its proposals for talks with the South as a ruse to escape from its economic difficulties and its international isolation. “The South Korean authorities must not miscalculate, mock, or distort our sincere intentions,” the statement warned.

The statement ended with a threat. “If [South Korea] continues to challenge our historic efforts to bring about a grand transition and transformation of inter-Korean relations, we will take control with firm retribution,” it said.

In response, a South Korean government official said, “North Korea’s statement does not explicitly state that it is rejecting dialogue. When its demand for us to create an atmosphere for dialogue was not met, the North chose to make stronger remarks through a more powerful organization as a way to put more pressure on us”.

If the battle of nerves between North and South Korea continues, it is unlikely that officials from the two sides will sit down for talks or that reunions of the divided families will be held before the Key Resolve exercises in March, predicted Chung Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute.

During an interview with Yonhap News on Jan. 23, South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae remarked that tourism to Mt. Keumgang had continued in the past before being shut down and that the government’s position was that those tours could be resumed.

In recent months, Ryoo has been stating with increasing clarity that tourism to Mt. Keumgang could be resumed - despite the UN sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear weapons program - if a solution could be reached about the death of a South Korean tourist to the mountain in 2008. The death of this tourist, who was shot by a North Korean soldier, caused the tours to be shut down.

When asked about whether the South Korean government will offer North Korea another proposal, Ryoo said that it is North Korea’s turn to respond.

By Son Won-je, staff reporter

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