North Korea on Monday condemned South Korea's unification ministry for the strained inter-Korean ties and confrontation between the two Koreas, saying that it should be disbanded.
A spokesman at the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea issued a statement claiming that the ministry handling inter-Korean affairs cannot avoid its responsibility for the frayed relations between the two Koreas.
(Yonhap)
"The Unification Ministry should be disorganized under any circumstances as it is opposed to reunification and it is staffed with lazybones," read the statement by the North Korean agency handling inter-Korean affairs in English.
"The bankrupt policy of confrontation be scrapped unconditionally," it added.
North Korea said that the ministry implemented ousted President Park Geun-hye's vicious policy of confrontation with the North.
Former President Park's key inter-Korean policy is called the Korean Peninsula Trust-Building Process, which calls for building mutual trust to pave the way for unification.
But since North Korea's two nuclear tests and numerous missile launches in 2016, South Korea has been focusing on applying pressure and sanctions on the North. The government did not officially ditch Park's signature policy.
In February last year, Seoul shut down a joint industrial complex in North Korea's border city of Kaesong in response to Pyongyang's provocations.
"South Koreans will have to send the group of traitors of the ministry along with Park to the cemetery of history," the statement added.
Seoul's unification ministry urged North Korea to stop groundless claims and make efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff.
"North Korea's nuclear development and ensuing provocations have led to inter-Korean relations being strained," Lee Duk-haeng, ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing.
"If the North really hopes that the inter-Korean ties would improve, it should refrain from making preposterous claims and make efforts to resolve the (nuclear) problem." (Yonhap)