Cheong Wa Dae Says North Korea's Insulting Remarks "Do Not Help Peace on the Korean Peninsula"

According to Financial News, Cheong Wa Dae said on the 8th, in response to a statement issued by Jang Kum Chol, first vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and director of the department in charge of relations with ten countries, that "verbal attacks and insulting language do not help promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."
In a press notice to the media regarding the "Jang Kum Chol statement" the same day, Cheong Wa Dae added, "The government will continue its efforts toward peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula based on mutual respect, and we hope the North will respond in kind."
Earlier, on the 6th, after President Lee Jae-myung of South Korea expressed regret over a North Korean unmanned aerial vehicle incursion incident, North Korea issued a statement in the name of Kim Yo Jong, director of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Secretariat, calling it "a wise decision in its own interest."
However, in a statement on the 7th, Jang Kum Chol stressed that Kim Yo Jong's message was clearly a warning and argued, "If the South Korean side chooses to interpret our government's swift response as an 'unusually friendly reaction' or as 'a prompt mutual confirmation of intent between leaders' and makes such nonsense like a pipe dream, it will go down as the wishful interpretation of fools."
cjk@fnnews.com Reporter Choi Jong-geun Reporter