SEOUL/Washington, August 20 (Reuters) – North Korea is preparing for its first summit with President Donald Trump, strengthening criticism of South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, and calling for Lee’s efforts to engage with Pyongyang and the “Pipede Dream.”
Since taking office in the SNAP election in June, the liberal Lee has taken steps to reduce tensions with the nuclear-armed North, which is expected to find similarities with Trump, who still boasts historic pinnacles with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
However, North Korean envoys have yet to accept Trump’s latest letters, and Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yeo-Jong, has issued a steady stream of a statement of rejection that rejects Lee’s overture and ridiculously laughs.
“Lee Jae Myung is not a man who changes the course of history,” she told a gathering of North Korean diplomats, the state news agency KCNA reported on Wednesday.
She called South Korea a “loyal dog” in Washington, accusing Lee of meaningfulness, saying his government is maintaining “the smelly conflict nature… surrounded by rappers of peace.”
Kim said the Lee administration is pursuing a two-sided policy of involvement, threatening joint military training with the US, based on a troop of around 28,500 South Korea, as a legacy of the 1950-1953 South Korean war.
Without providing details, the KCNA report said that state leader Kim Jong ordered diplomats to take a “preemptive counter-” and a “preemptive counter-” against enemy states.
In response to her statement, the South Korean presidential office said the administration will open a new era for joint growth with North Korea, with its recent measures aimed at stability and prosperity for both South Korea.
South Korea and its allies launched joint military training this week, including testing an upgraded response to North Korea’s rising nuclear threat.
Earlier this week, UN Kim Jong said the US joint drill was “a clear expression of the will to cause war” and that his country needs to rapidly expand its nuclear armament.
North Korea has moved forward with more ballistic missiles, expanding its nuclear weapons facilities and gained new support from its neighbors.
“The North Korean leader believes there is little need to engage with Washington as he receives much more benefits from Russia on far fewer terms than he can achieve from the US,” said Bruce Klingner, a former US intelligence news analyst at the Mansfield Foundation.
Still, Kim was able to respond to Trump in the hopes of offering the US president a illusion of success.
North Korea has recently changed its policy towards the South, rejected the idea of peaceful unification, calling Seoul the main enemy.
Lee ordered ministers this week to prepare for partial, phased implementation of the existing agreement with North Korea, and South Korea began removing speakers that highlighted anti-North Korean broadcasting along the border.
“There’s nothing new here, and we’re not going to get that anywhere,” said Jenny Town, managing director of Washington-based North Korea Project 38 North.
If something in the material is being discussed at the summit, it will likely become a joint drill that Trump reduced during his first term, the town said.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee of Seoul and David Branstrom of Washington, Additional Report by Jumin Park, Written by Josh Smith, Edited by Stephen Coates and Michael Perry)
