Kim Yo-jong Mocks President Lee Jae-myung's Call for Inter-Korean Dialogue as a 'Self-Staged Clown Act'

Kim Yo-jong, head of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, mocked South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's call to restore inter-Korean dialogue as a "self-staged clown act" in a statement released through the Korean Central News Agency on October 2, making clear that the North has no intention of engaging in talks. In her statement, Kim dismissed the willingness to ease tensions that President Lee expressed in his Armed Forces Day address the previous day. She sneered, "Small fry like minnows are busy nitpicking at others, demanding the release of investigation results and official statements," adding that "the man they call president declared his intent to consistently take substantive measures to lower military tensions." She went on to denounce it as "the climactic scene of a clown act too good to watch alone." In his address the previous day, President Lee had said, "I expect and urge the North to now join us on the path to restoring trust and resuming severed dialogue."

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young also proposed on the morning of October 2 that the two sides begin communications to re-verify and re-measure the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that divides the peninsula. Kim said the purpose of the border fortification work was to "shut the door on South Korea forever." Regarding the fortification of the border, she stated, "We will not allow even the slightest space or opening for any form of entanglement or contact with South Korea," rejecting both the demand for an apology and the proposal for talks on the Military Demarcation Line.

The statement came just two days after she had called the incident a "blatant self-staged play that vividly brings to mind the wooden-box landmine incident" on September 30. Regarding the landmine explosion south of the Military Demarcation Line, Kim said the South had "rushed to a preposterous conclusion and issued a hopelessly clumsy official statement," adding, "They even talked about an apology — it is utterly pathetic."

Kim Yo-jong said through the KCNA statement, "It seems Act Two of the self-staged clown show has begun," and that "they appear intent on throwing the world into confusion and then playing the role of the righteous hero." She then sneered, "I don't know who is playing the lead and who is playing the supporting role, but in any case, I hope their righteous performance wins plenty of popularity."

Kim also took issue with South Korean military authorities describing the landmine explosion as a 'provocation' by the North Korean military. She questioned whether they even understood what the word 'provocation' means, claiming that a real 'provocation' was something like the drone incursions recently carried out against the North by the Yoon Suk-yeol government and the current ruling party.