North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister on Tuesday dismissed hopes for improved relations with Seoul as a “pipe dream”, and demanded an apology over an alleged drone incursion from the South.
“As far as Seoul’s various hope-filled wild dreams called ‘repair of DPRK-ROK relations’ are concerned, they all can never come true,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, using the acronyms for the official names of both countries.
Pyongyang said over the weekend that it shot down a drone near the North Korean city of Kaesong in early January after it crossed from the South Korean border county of Ganghwa.
Seoul denied the claim, saying the drone shown in photos released by Pyongyang was not a model its military operates.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has ordered a joint military-police probe into the drone case, saying any civilian involvement would be “a serious crime that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula”.
Kim Yo Jong said the North sees the incident as a grave provocation.
“The Seoul authorities should admit and apologize for having violated the sovereignty of the DPRK and take a measure for preventing reoccurrence,” she said, warning that repeated infringements would force them to “pay the price they cannot deal with”.
“This is not a mere rhetorical threat,” she added.
The latest flare-up comes as former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol is standing trial on charges that he illegally ordered drone operations, hoping to provoke a response from Pyongyang and use it as a pretext for his short-lived bid to impose martial law.
Yoon was impeached and removed from office in April last year over his martial law attempt.
Lee, who took office following Yoon’s removal, has sought to reset relations with Pyongyang and travelled to China last week seeking Beijing’s help in bringing the North back to the negotiating table.
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