N. Korea Presses S. Korea for Stance
As the next South Korean Government readies itself to take over, North Korea presses it to define its stance toward the disputed maritime border.
N. Korea presses next S. Korean gov’t to define stance toward Pyongyang
North Korea called for South Korea Wednesday to change its hostile policy toward the communist country, saying that inter-Korean relations are at a cross-roads as they were five years ago.
The North’s powerful National Defense Commission took issue with a recent series of remarks or statements issued by top South Korean leaders calling for tighter security against the North’s belligerence.
“The South Korean government must choose between confrontation and peace,” the North’s commission said in a statement, carried by the country’s Korean Central News Agency.
The North’s statement directed its anger at the sitting South Korean government of President Lee Myung-bak but its focus is obviously on the incoming president, Park Geun-hye, who takes office on Feb. 25 for a single five-year term.
After a decade of liberal rule during which inter-Korean relations significantly warmed, South Korea rolled back to a policy of confrontation in 2008 when conservatives regained power.
In his New Year’s address, the sitting South Korean president again vowed to defend the disputed inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea, an issue that has constantly strained cross-border relations.
