Kim Yo Jong Calls DMZ Landmine Blast a "Self-Staged Clown Show" by "South Korean Armed Thugs," Flatly Denies Violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement

[Financial News] Kim Yo Jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's Workers' Party, flatly denied the South Korean military's preliminary investigation finding that North Korea was responsible for a landmine explosion in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the western front. Kim called the findings "a self-staged clown show by Seoul" and warned, "If even a single bullet lands on our territory, we will deliver ruthless retaliation." North Korea appears to have issued the strong blanket denial in anticipation of a possible joint protest by the South Korean military and the United Nations Command (UNC) over its alleged violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on the 30th, Kim made the claim in a statement issued the previous day titled "Those Behind the Provocation Must Be Prepared to Pay for Their Self-Staged Clown Show."
Kim protested, "Recently, the South Korean armed thugs carried out another provocative act by announcing what they called investigation findings concerning a landmine explosion in areas near the southern border and once again linking us to it." She added, "True to form, the South Koreans' scriptwriting is extremely crude and vile. Of course, this kind of clown show is by no means new." She said that, at the time of the landmine explosion on the 21st, she had already anticipated and seen through Seoul's script and the intent behind its plot.
Kim Yo Jong even called the 2015 wooden-box mine incident a self-staged operation. She claimed, "This incident is an unmistakable self-staged farce that exactly resembles the 'wooden-box mine incident' that caused turmoil more than a decade ago in terms of the timing and method of the provocation."
She continued with the sophistry, saying, "Even then, the puppets forcibly linked the landmine explosion in the western border area to us and used it as a pretext to continuously escalate tensions."
She also claimed that the South Korean government was fabricating a pretext to justify political and military provocations.
Kim Yo Jong said, "We cannot simply sit by and watch this disgraceful spectacle as they step on and detonate a mine of unknown origin in a place we do not even know, indiscriminately suspect someone, and babble that a violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement is obvious."
She also criticized demands from the People Power Party that loudspeakers aimed at North Korea be reactivated as a corresponding measure against Pyongyang.
She sneered, "Following the pointless bravado of the new defense minister, Seoul's politicians, including the People Power Party, are already passionately arguing that the loudspeakers aimed at North Korea, which were dismantled, should be put back up."
North Korea claimed that it had been exercising its sovereignty in border areas for the past two years. Kim said, "As everyone knows, our military has been carrying out construction of barriers along the southern border for the past two years as part of a border fortification project. This is nothing more than a thorough exercise of sovereignty unrelated to any military purpose."
However, she claimed, "South Korean warmongers have baselessly taken issue with our personnel mobilized for the construction of border barriers, alleging that they crossed the border, and have seriously threatened the safety of our soldiers by issuing warning broadcasts and firing warning shots." She went on to make the specious claim that, since August last year, South Korea had carried out warning broadcasts and warning shots almost every day.
Kim said, "Let me make this clear: our soldiers have never crossed the border even once."
She signaled a tit-for-tat response to the South Korean military's preparations for corresponding measures.
Kim said, "We will not simply stand by and watch the worrisome hostile acts taking place along the border. If even one bullet lands on our territory, they must be prepared for serious consequences. We will deliver immediate and ruthless retaliation." She added that instructions for responding to such actions had already been issued to border defense units.
She warned that measures would be taken to reinforce tactical counterattack capabilities in the direction of the DMZ facing the South Korean Army's III Corps and 21st Infantry Division.
Kim added, "It would be wise to use rational thinking and carefully weigh the costs and benefits." She threatened that trying to act brave out of bravado would only lead to a miserable and catastrophic fate. She also said, "The dramatic climax of Seoul's self-staged clown show will by no means be entertaining, and those who planned the provocation will bear full responsibility for all the consequences."
Kang Shin-chul, Minister of National Defense, and the military leadership attended the previous day's plenary session of the National Assembly's Defense Committee and reported that three of four North Korean mines had been found south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), constituting a violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
Kang also said that South Korea would take corresponding measures in response to North Korea's violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement. North Korea issued its denial one day after the South Korean military reported its preliminary investigation findings to the National Assembly and 10 days after the accident occurred on the 21st. [email protected] Reporter Kim Kyung-soo 


[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter