{"id":42416,"date":"2025-07-28T10:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T10:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/42416\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T10:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T10:46:08","slug":"north-korea-rejects-seouls-outreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/42416\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea rejects Seoul’s outreach"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 The influential sister<\/a> of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed overtures<\/a> by South Korea\u2019s new liberal government, saying Monday that its \u201cblind trust\u201d in the country\u2019s alliance with the U.S. and hostility toward North Korea make it no different from its conservative predecessor. <\/p>\n

Kim Yo Jong\u2019s comments imply that North Korea \u2014 now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia<\/a> \u2014 sees no need to resume diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. Experts say she likely hopes to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed,\u201d Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s North Korea\u2019s first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung<\/a>, which took office in early June with a promise to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea. <\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts<\/a>, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier.<\/p>\n

North Korea complains of South Korea-US military drills<\/p>\n

North Korea has shunned talks with South Korea and the U.S. since leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy<\/a> with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals and declared a hostile \u201ctwo-state\u201d system<\/a> on the Korean Peninsula to terminate relations with South Korea.<\/p>\n

Kim Yo Jong called Lee\u2019s steps \u201csincere efforts\u201d to develop ties, but said the new government still plots to \u201cstand in confrontation\u201d with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-U.S. military drills<\/a>, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. <\/p>\n

Lee said it\u2019s important to restore trust between the Koreas as he met Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and asked about his thought on the latest North Korean statement. Chung, whose job makes him the top South Korean official on North Korea, later told reporters that he intends to propose to Lee that South Korea and the U.S. \u201cadjust\u201d their military exercises.<\/p>\n

Chung\u2019s remarks, which could mean scaling back South Korea-U.S. training as a way to get North Korea to return to talks, will likely invite strong criticism from conservatives, who support expanded South Korea-U.S. training to cope with North Korea\u2019s advancing nuclear program. <\/p>\n

Moon Seong Mook, an analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said Kim Yo Jong\u2019s statement shows North Korea is holding out for South Korea to abandon the U.S. alliance. <\/p>\n

Moon said that Kim likely sees little upside in engaging with the South since it cannot restart economic projects that previously benefited the North as long as international sanctions remain in place. <\/p>\n

North Korea focuses on Russian ties<\/p>\n

North Korea built cooperation with Russia, sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war in Ukraine, and likely receiving economic and economic assistance<\/a> in return. <\/p>\n

Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn\u2019t publicly responded to Trump\u2019s overture.<\/p>\n

Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said that Kim Yo Jong\u2019s statement had a domestic audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cKim Yo Jong\u2019s comments are an effort to advance national pride by portraying North Korea in a superior position, despite its economic struggles and international pariah status,\u201d Easley said. \u201cShe also seeks to justify Pyongyang\u2019s weapons programs and divide Seoul and Washington by criticizing upcoming military exercises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there is a limit on what North Korea can get from Russia, and Pyongyang could change course at a major upcoming meeting of the ruling Workers\u2019 Party, likely to be held in January, said Kwak Gil Sup, the head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korea affairs. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think North Korea may formulate a Plan B and Plan C in relations for South Korea and the U.S.,\u201d Kwak said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed overtures by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,1204,1930,12,793,6507,34055,10262,1576,3,6505,6506,111,1866,21,19,22,20,25,24,965],"class_list":["post-42416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-asia-pacific","tag-diplomacy","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-kim-yo-jong","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-military-and-defense","tag-news","tag-north-korea","tag-north-korea-government","tag-politics","tag-south-korea","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}