“If the United States continues to strengthen [the U.S.-South Korea] military alliance, engage in large-scale buildup of arms, and use North Korea as an excuse, a Second Korean War is inevitable”, said Ri, according to South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh. Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok expressed his sorrow over the incident.
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Explaining the intention behind the trip, Kim Sung-jae, an official at the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center, told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency: “Lee voiced hope that the two Koreas could heal pain and wounds from a 70-year-long inter-Korean division and promote reconciliation and co-operation”.
“The doors of opportunity stand open for North Korea to join in this process”, Park said.
“What the U.S. really wants is not denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula but the Americanization on the entire Korean Peninsula”, he said.
The North’s representative in Malaysia said, however, that it depends on the U.S. whether his country changes its own stance – but for now the plan is to bolster its “high precision miniaturized nuclear forces to operative level”.
The diplomat further defended his country’s strategy of pursuing economic growth and its nuclear weapons program. The U.S. and its allies say the program is intended to develop long-range ballistic missile capability.
North Korea’s government has long faced worldwide condemnation for having one of the world’s worst human rights records. Pyongyang has increased its military preparedness over the last year, along with regional ally China.
Washington at that time said it would not make a concession to Pyongyang for doing what it is already obligated to do through past nuclear agreements and United Nations restrictions in place.
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Analysts said Pyongyang’s time shift was aimed at shoring up the official narrative that paints North Korea as the pure, “authentic” Korea and South Korea as a land polluted by foreign domination.
