N. Korea's Kim Yo-jong dismisses apology demand over landmines: 'Pathetic'

Kim Yo-jong, director of the Korean Workers' Party General Affairs Department, said Friday that the true purpose of fortifying North Korea's border is to permanently shut the door on South Korea. "It is necessary to understand exactly what the true intention behind fortifying the border is," she said. "The purpose is to close the door forever — so that we never have to face South Korea, so that not even wild animals can pass through."

According to KCNA, Kim made the remarks in a statement, adding: "Frankly speaking, even being conscious of the South Korean lot gives us goosebumps."

"An enemy is, after all, an enemy," she said, calling the statement "a grave conclusion we are once again reaching through Seoul's latest self-directed farce."

She went on to say that "Seoul has once again laid bare, without filter, its vicious true colors — its intent to plunge the Korean Peninsula into a critical situation for its own selfish purposes." Kim accused Seoul of "hastily drawing the absurd conclusion that the landmine explosion near the border was the result of someone's 'covert and deliberate mine-laying,' and then issuing a clumsy so-called 'official position statement.'"

She also dismissed talk of an apology, saying "they even brought up the matter of some 'apology' — pathetic, the lot of them," flatly rejecting the request by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the United Nations Command for an apology over North Korean landmines in the Demilitarized Zone.

Kim asked rhetorically: "One needs to think rationally. Why would anyone imagine we would have any reason to get entangled with South Korea?"

She went on to say: "Are these not the same people who see a flock of birds and cry 'North Korean drone'? Our greatest wish is to sever all ties forever with a lot who bring us nothing but headaches whenever we face them."

Kim said North Korea "will not allow even the slightest space or room to become entangled with or deal with South Korea in any form." She sarcastically remarked that "the perpetrators of this outrageous, suspicion-riddled incident, finding themselves in a position where even making excuses is difficult and awkward, appear to have fallen back on their habitual meddlesome ways."

She escalated her rhetoric, saying: "Honestly, this is now tedious, horrifying and tiresome. Seoul must stop scheming and immediately cease its futile attempts to tarnish the image of our state."

Kim also said: "Among the expressions South Koreans habitually use against us, 'provocation' is the one they reach for most — I wonder if they even know what it actually means."

She argued that "what can rationally be called a provocation is something like the act of pinning blame on others when they are in a bind, as they are doing now, or something like the drone provocation that the Yoon Suk Yeol clique and the current ruling authorities recently carried out against us — that is what a real provocation is."

Regarding President Lee Jae Myung, she said: "Another spectacle worth noting is that the underlings — small fry — are busy picking groundless quarrels with others, announcing investigation results and official position statements, while the person called president appeared at some kind of commemoration ceremony and expressed his will to consistently take practical measures to reduce military tension."

Kim called it "the climax of a farce too good to watch alone," adding: "It seems the second act of this self-directed farce has begun. I don't know who plays the lead and who plays the supporting role, but I hope they win great popularity with their performances in 'righteous roles.'"

She went on to say that "those who put effort into writing the script, directing and performing in this farce should duly be presented with a costly 'commendation.'"