South Korea’s presidential Blue House gave no response to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong’s humiliating and threatening statement toward President Moon Jae-in.
This is yet another example of the Moon administration’s submissive approach toward the North, which seeks to gain the North’s approval by ignoring its threats. They continue with this policy even though Pyongyang seems intent on humiliating Moon.
Kim Yo-jong, director of the propaganda department of the ruling Workers’ Party, released a statement late Wednesday blasting South Korean President Moon Jae-in for calling the North’s tests a “provocation.” She threatened a “total deadlock” of inter-Korean relations. The statement was released soon after Moon attended the test launch of a domestically developed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the Navy submarine Dosan Ahn Chang-ho. Moon delivered remarks that called the successful test a sign that South Korea has “sufficient deterrence to respond to North Korea’s provocations at any time.”
Kim called Moon “too stupid” to be the president of a country and warned that inter-Korean relations will end up in a total deadlock if Moon continues to support “the act of faulting and hurting the dialogue partner,” while adding that this was not what the North desired. “Every word and act must be made with deep thought,” she said.
A key official from the Blue House met with reporters on September 16 and said he does not have any comment on Kim Yo-jong’s latest statement. One official told the local media outlet News 1 that “we will continue to do our things as they are planned to protect the Republic of Korea and its people.” The official added that “it is not desirable to assess North Korean reaction every time while we are working on our things.”
The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper quoted a senior official from the ruling party who is familiar with the Blue House’s situation as saying “it is important that the North said that they do not want to see inter-Korean relations move toward a complete destruction phase.” The official said that it is a signal that North Korea is trying to take the lead in future talks on ongoing situations such as its resumption of activity at the Yongbyon reactor and launching of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. He said that this was why President Moon had to witness the SLBM test in person, since he understood the intent of North Korea. The official added that “it would be great if people could understand this situation as both North Korea and South Korea doing what they have to at this point.”
While leftist politicians have also been silent about Kim Yo-jong’s comments, Yoon Geon-young, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party who is very close to President Moon, released a rare statement criticizing Kim. Yoon was a former Blue House chief of state affairs during the Moon Jae-in administration. He was also one of the key figures in the negotiations leading up to the inter-Korean summit in April 2018.
“Kim Yo-jong is simply lacking basic manners,” Yoon said. “Kim always said they were for self-defense purposes whenever North Korea fired missiles and the Republic of Korea conducted measures that are based on self-defense purposes.”
He added that “what North Korea must know and never misunderstand is that raising tension through military provocations would never be good for them.”
In a surprising mood, even the pro-Pyongyang South Korean Ministry of Unification also condemned Kim Yo-jong’s comments. “They must uphold respect and manners toward their counterpart regardless of what the situation is like,” an official from the ministry told reporters. “Kim Yo-jong released multiple statements so far, but this was the first time she mentioned the president’s name. North Korea calling out and criticizing our president does not help the development of peace on the Korean Peninsula and inter-Korean relations whatsoever.”
The official added that it will not speculate on the reasoning behind Kim’s comments and will prepare for every possibility by closely monitoring the North Korean situation.
The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) pointed out the fact that North Korea tested a new “railway-borne missile system” and can now launch missiles toward South Korea whenever they want. The party then condemned Kim Yo-jong’s threatening comments, “North Korea’s supercilious behavior is the natural outcome of President Moon’s actions.”
Heo Eun-ah, a spokesperson from the PPP, released a statement on September 16 saying, “the Moon administration passed the anti-leaflet law which was a submission to orders made by Kim Yo-jong and turned a blind eye to North Korea’s resumption of the Yongbyon reactor.” Heo continued, saying that the Moon administration failed to receive an apology from North Korea for demolishing the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong and kept silent after the North called Moon’s remarks on reunifying the peninsula as so preposterous that it would “make the boiled head of a cow laugh.”
“As long as [the government] remains silent, North Korea will continue its military provocations and China will more openly side with North Korea,” she said. “President Moon should react to the North Korean provocations more decisively and speak out about China’s interventions in domestic affairs. This is the only way to offset this administration’s North Korean policies, which have already failed.”
A president who promised to bring peace to the Korean peninsula is seeing tensions with the North rise as his term in office ends. Instead of standing up to Pyongyang, Moon appears to be content to stick his head in the sand and ignore the signs of crisis.
