North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has spurned Seoul’s efforts to mend diplomatic relations, saying Pyongyang has “absolutely no business dealing with” his nation’s “most hostile” enemy, state media said Thursday.
South Korea has mounted a concerted push to build bridges with Pyongyang under President Lee Jae Myung, who has sought the “peaceful coexistence” of two nations still technically at war.
Kim had largely ignored these overtures and dashed hopes of rapprochement in a fiery statement delivered at the end of a landmark party congress.
North Korea has “absolutely no business dealing with South Korea, its most hostile entity, and will permanently exclude South Korea from the category of compatriots”, Kim said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
“As long as South Korea cannot escape the geopolitical conditions of having a border with us, the only way to live safely is to give up everything related to us and leave us alone.”
Pyongyang amended its constitution in 2024 to define South Korea as a “hostile state” for the first time.
South Korea’s disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol was accused of using unmanned drones to scatter propaganda leaflets over North Korea in 2024.
Lee has sought to mend ties by stamping out such provocations, and has even suggested a rare apology may be warranted.
A UN Security Council committee recently approved exemptions allowing fresh flows of food and medicine into North Korea, according to diplomatic sources.
A Seoul government official said South Korea has made “various efforts” to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the North regardless of politics, hinting that the country had lobbied Washington.
Seoul’s unification ministry released a statement Thursday, saying it regrets that North Korea “did not respond to our government’s efforts for peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula.”
South Korea’s presidential office also said Seoul “will continue to make efforts to open a future ... where the South and the North coexist peacefully.”
“To achieve this, the two Koreas must refrain from hostile and confrontational words and actions and build a foundation of mutual respect and trust,” it added.
Thousands of party elites packed North Korea’s capital Pyongyang in recent days for a summit of the ruling Workers’ Party, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from diplomacy to war planning.
A “grand” military parade was held on Wednesday evening as the once-in-five-years gathering drew to a close, state media said.
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