ID :
191918
Thu, 06/30/2011 - 05:08
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/191918
The shortlink copeid
S. Korea refuses to accept N. Korea's warning message
SEOUL, June 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea refused to accept a warning message from North Korea over its alleged smear campaign against the North's leaders, an official said Thursday.
A North Korean committee handling inter-Korean affairs tried to send the message to South Korea's presidential office on Wednesday through a Red Cross channel at the truce village of Panmunjom, the official said.
But the official said Seoul refused to accept it, noting it was not appropriate for the committee to send a message directly to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.
The move prompted Pyongyang to disclose the message through its official Korean Central News Agency late Wednesday.
The message repeated Pyongyang's latest demand that Seoul apologize for alleged provocations, punish those who are responsible and remove all the foul military slogans slandering the North's top leaders.
"If the South continues to connive at the provocations defiling the dignity of the leadership of the (North), the (North) will resolutely counter them with an all-out military retaliation," the committee said in the message.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, the North also threatened to launch a retaliatory "sacred war" against South Korea over the smear campaign.
North Korea bristles at criticism of its leader Kim Jong-il and his late father and the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, the subjects of a massive cult of personality that pervades almost every aspect of North Korean society.
Tensions have persisted between the two Koreas over Pyongyang's two deadly attacks on the South last year that killed 50 South Koreans. Still, the North has refused to take responsibility for the attacks.
(END)
A North Korean committee handling inter-Korean affairs tried to send the message to South Korea's presidential office on Wednesday through a Red Cross channel at the truce village of Panmunjom, the official said.
But the official said Seoul refused to accept it, noting it was not appropriate for the committee to send a message directly to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.
The move prompted Pyongyang to disclose the message through its official Korean Central News Agency late Wednesday.
The message repeated Pyongyang's latest demand that Seoul apologize for alleged provocations, punish those who are responsible and remove all the foul military slogans slandering the North's top leaders.
"If the South continues to connive at the provocations defiling the dignity of the leadership of the (North), the (North) will resolutely counter them with an all-out military retaliation," the committee said in the message.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, the North also threatened to launch a retaliatory "sacred war" against South Korea over the smear campaign.
North Korea bristles at criticism of its leader Kim Jong-il and his late father and the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, the subjects of a massive cult of personality that pervades almost every aspect of North Korean society.
Tensions have persisted between the two Koreas over Pyongyang's two deadly attacks on the South last year that killed 50 South Koreans. Still, the North has refused to take responsibility for the attacks.
(END)
