North Korea's Kim Yo Jong Hits Back at UN Chief's "Call for Dialogue," Says He Is "Speaking for South Korea"

Kim Yo Jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's Workers' Party, pushed back against UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called for easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula and resuming dialogue, accusing him of speaking on South Korea's behalf.

Kim Yo Jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's Workers' Party. Yonhap News Agency

In a statement released through the Korean Central News Agency on November 10, Kim said, "The UN secretary-general's remarks expressing 'concern' and calling for the 'resumption of dialogue' may appear to be part of his duties, whose primary mission is to mediate conflicts, but in reality, they merely represent South Korea's shameless position of trying to shift responsibility for the incident onto us."

Kim said that North Korea had sent the president of the UN Security Council a letter from its representative to the UN outlining its position on the land mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and that the letter had been circulated as an official document.

Addressing Secretary-General Guterres, she said, "I express regret that you have taken a biased and irresponsible stance by echoing South Korea's unilateral and provocative sophistry, in violation of the strict neutrality stipulated in the UN Charter." She added, "This will not help ease tensions at all and could instead embolden them to become even more reckless and reinforce their bad habits." She continued, "I make clear on this occasion that if an unfortunate incident occurs in the southern border area due to the reckless military provocations of South Korean gangsters, UN Secretary-General Guterres will not be able to escape responsibility for it."

The statement appeared to be a response to a letter the South Korean government sent to the president of the Security Council, saying that the mine explosion was a "violation of the Armistice Agreement."

The statement came amid a dispute between the two Koreas over responsibility for an incident in September, when South Korean soldiers were injured in a land mine explosion on the western front of the DMZ. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the United Nations Command concluded that the mines were anti-personnel mines planted by North Korea south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), and deemed the incident a violation of the Armistice Agreement. In response, the South Korean government sent a letter to the president of the Security Council on October 22, under the name of South Korean Ambassador to the UN Cha Jihoon. North Korea sent its own letter three days later, on October 25, claiming that South Korea had staged the incident.

On November 5, UN Secretary-General's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a regular briefing at UN headquarters in New York that Secretary-General Guterres remained concerned about the situation on the Korean Peninsula. He said Guterres had specifically noted the possibility of rising tensions in the DMZ and urged the parties concerned to resume communication channels.

Regarding North Korea's so-called "fortification of the southern border," Kim insisted that it was "the most legitimate, justifiable, and normal exercise of the right to self-defense to protect the security of our territory from external threats of aggression," adding that "there is no basis whatsoever for claiming it violates the UN Charter or international law." She also claimed, "South Korea continues its habitual provocations by interfering with and obstructing the construction of defensive military facilities that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is carrying out within its own territory, while attempting to shift responsibility for escalating tensions onto others."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.