North Korea calls reunification ‘daydream of a psychopath’

South Korean president should ‘keep her disgusting mouth closed’ in order to improve relations, says Pyongyang

north-korea-troops-1.jpg
(Image credit: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

NORTH KOREA has denounced the idea of peaceful reunification with the South as the “daydream of a psychopath”.

The typically forthright statement was Pyongyang’s first reaction to a speech made last month by South Korean President Park Geun-Hye in which she called on the North to increase cultural and economic exchanges with Seoul and step up reunions of families divided by the separation of Korea.

Speaking in Dresden in the former East Germany, Park said: "Germany's unity is for us an example and model for a peaceful reunification.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

North Korea’s powerful National Defence Commission took exception to the comparison, however. Today, an NDC spokesman observed that German reunification came about with the West absorbing the East and accused Park of begging foreign countries to help South Korea absorb the North, AFP reports.

"This is merely a daydream of psychopath," he said, adding that Park’s speech was "nonsense" and full of "hypocrisy and deception".

"The fact that in that particular place, Park Geun-Hye lashed her tongue about reunification gave away her sinister mind.

"They should bear in mind that the tongue-lashing of Park Geun-Hye is the root cause of deteriorating North-South relations and beclouding the prospect of the nation.

"It is the unanimous view of the public that the North-South relations will be smoother than now only if Park keeps her disgusting mouth closed," the spokesman said.

The uncompromising language follows a month of tension on the Korean peninsula, with the North warning that it might carry out new nuclear tests and both countries exchanging artillery fire.

Despite this, analysts expect Pyongyang to return to dialogue over its nuclear capability later this month when joint military exercises between the South and the United States finish.