Kim Yo-jong mocks Chung Dong-young over “confession” on mine incident; rejects medical aid to North Korea

[Financial News] On the 8th, Kim Yo-jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, used the claim that “Unification Minister Chung Dong-young confessed it was not a mine attack” as a shield to evade responsibility for the explosion at the Military Demarcation Line (MDL).
In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, Kim claimed that “South Korean official Chung Dong-young himself admitted that it is difficult to conclude that this ‘mine explosion incident’ was a deliberate attack by our republic.”
Kim also mocked South Korea, saying that with many questions about the “mine explosion incident” still unanswered, “an endless dogfight is taking place over whether it was an accident or a provocation.”
At the National Assembly audit of the Ministry of Unification the previous day, independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon asked, “Mines aren’t meant to catch water deer, are they?” and asked for the ministry’s position on the offensive nature of the North Korean military’s mines. Minister Chung replied, “It cannot be identified as a mine attack.” He also maintained that it was an “accidental incident,” not a mine provocation.
Questions from opposition lawmakers also continued the previous day, asking why Minister Chung had opposed cyber sanctions against North Korea proposed by Foreign Minister Cho Hyun at the National Security Council (NSC). Ahn Cheol-soo, a People Power Party lawmaker, called for sanctions, saying, “North Korea’s cyber hacking is a serious problem. It steals money from countries around the world every year.”
Minister Chung replied, “The Ministry of Unification’s position is that [sanctions] are not an appropriate response to the mine explosion incident.”
North Korea also flatly rejected the Ministry of Unification’s plan to provide 9.3 billion won worth of medical equipment free of charge. Kim disparaged the medical aid plan for North Korea as “an insult, a mutated political provocation, and a grave act of infringing on sovereignty that violates our national laws.”
Kim denounced the plan, saying, “This time, the hooligans suddenly staged another farce with ‘goodwill’ as its theme.” She also mentioned that the South Korean government had sent a request to the UN Security Council’s North Korea Sanctions Committee (1718 Committee) seeking an exemption from sanctions on North Korea to provide medical equipment.
Kim denounced South Korea, saying, “In this ‘request,’ the South Korean lot blathered on about someone’s ‘shortages of medicines and medical equipment and worsening health conditions,’ and recklessly claimed that they would ‘contribute to improving essential medical services for vulnerable groups.’”
She went on to claim, “When the clumsily fabricated staged drama could no longer be expected to bring in the anticipated box-office returns, what the South Korean lot finally came up with was the second act of the farce called the ‘medical equipment support plan.’ A sinister political calculation underlies this staged drama: they hope to gain something by contrasting their ‘goodwill’ with our ‘opposing attitude’ of rejecting it.”
Targeting the South Korean government, Kim also sneered, “Everything is a jumble of one-sided judgments, one-sided decisions and one-sided announcements. It is impossible not to suspect one of two things: either political immaturity, or that they are truly congenital fools who cannot be reformed.”
She added, “I reiterate clearly that the absolutely unchanging position of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is that there is nothing whatsoever to give or receive with South Korea, nothing to become entangled in, and no need even to face it,” adding, “South Korea’s identity as the state most hostile to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the hostile nature of inter-Korean relations, can never change.” 

[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter