Kim Yo Jong Criticizes UN Chief Guterres, Accusing Him of Siding With South Korea Over DMZ Land Mine Blast
North Korea's state news agency KCNA reported on November 10 that Kim Yo Jong, a senior Workers' Party official and sister of leader Kim Jong Un, had criticized UN Secretary-General António Guterres, accusing him of speaking only for South Korea after he called for renewed inter-Korean dialogue following a land mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone.
The dispute stems from a September 21 explosion inside the DMZ, in which three South Korean soldiers were injured, two of them seriously, while clearing a patrol route south of the Military Demarcation Line in the western sector. Guterres said last week that he was encouraging the parties to restore channels of communication, including on the military level, to prevent unintended accidents or miscalculations. Kim said the secretary-general had echoed the words of the provokers and patronised them without a proper understanding of the facts, behaviour she said was not helpful to detente, and she expressed regret that the UN's top official, for whom impartiality and objectivity are a lifeline, had taken what she called a prejudiced and irresponsible attitude.
A joint investigation by the South Korean army and the UN Command concluded in early October that the blast was caused by anti-personnel mines deliberately placed by North Korea south of the demarcation line, an accusation Pyongyang firmly rejects. Kim defended the North's construction of military fortifications along its southern border as a legitimate act of self-defence, accused South Korea of interfering with the work while blaming Pyongyang for rising tensions, and warned that Guterres would bear responsibility if South Korean military actions led to a confrontation along the border.
South Korea's government said Pyongyang was trying to exacerbate the situation and shift responsibility onto Seoul. The two sides' accounts of the explosion remain directly opposed, and military communication channels between them have not been restored.
(Source: KCNA)
Source: KCNA
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：朝鲜半岛非军事区板门店一带（资料图）。CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Panmunjom area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (file photo). CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
