Kim Yo Jong calls Seoul's medical equipment aid plan a 'political provocation'

Kim Yo Jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's Workers' Party, on 8 October rejected the South Korean government's plan to send medical equipment to the North, calling it a "political provocation" in a statement released through the Korean Central News Agency. She said it is the "absolute and unchanging position" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea that there is nothing to give, receive or be entangled in with South Korea, and no need even to face it. [ 1 , 5 , 7 , 8 ]

The statement targeted the government's request to the UN Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee, the 1718 Committee, for a sanctions exemption to send medical equipment to Kangdong County Hospital (강동군병원) in Pyongyang. According to material the Unification Ministry submitted to Kim Dae-sik (김대식), a People Power Party member of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the aid was arranged through the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH). Kukmin Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo reported the exemption was approved in May. Newsis put the value of the equipment at about 9.3 billion won. [ 1 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]

Kim said the request's references to shortages of medicines and medical equipment and to improving vulnerable people's access to essential care were "an insult to our state, a mutated political provocation and a grave act of sovereignty infringement that goes against our national law". She said "rogues" were staging "another farce on the theme of 'goodwill'". [ 1 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]

She tied the plan to a mine explosion in the western-front demilitarised zone, calling the incident a "clumsily fabricated" staged drama and the aid plan "the second part of the farce". Kukmin Ilbo reported that South Korean soldiers were injured when a mine laid by the North Korean military exploded. Kim cited Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who told a parliamentary audit on 7 October that the explosion could not yet be identified as an attack, and said he had "confessed" it was hard to conclude it was a deliberate attack by the North. [ 1 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]

According to Dong-A Ilbo, Kim said Seoul knew the equipment could not enter North Korean territory, and she accused it of seeking political gain by contrasting its "goodwill" with Pyongyang's refusal, asking whether its officials were "born fools". She said that if Seoul really wanted to turn relations around it must first show "maximum respect, consideration and sincerity", but also that the hostile nature of relations between the two Koreas "can never change". [ 1 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]

A Unification Ministry official told reporters that the shipment, planned for around November when the exemption was obtained, now looks realistically difficult and that no talks with the North are taking place. The official said the ministry would consult the UN on extending the exemption after its nine-month validity ends in February next year. SBS, by contrast, reported that the exemption was approved with a deadline of November. [ 1 , 6 ]