By Lee Min-hyung
Four South Korean journalists arrived in Beijing, Monday, on their way to North Korea to witness the regime's planned dismantling of a nuclear test site.
But it remains undetermined whether they can enter the North, with Pyongyang suddenly renewing its provocative rhetoric against Seoul and declining to accept a list of journalists. Four other journalists will also arrive in Beijing late Monday before trying to head to the North to cover the event.
“We are trying to send the list to the North, but the regime has yet to acknowledge our notice,” the unification ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said Monday in a media briefing. “We need to wait and see how the situation develops.”
The journalists will apply for visas to enter the North at the North Korean embassy in Beijing. If they are issued their visas there, they will go to the North, Tuesday, along with other journalists invited from China, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
North Korea has yet to fix the date for the dismantling event of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, only saying it will demolish the facility sometime between May 23 and 25. The North has used the northeastern mountainous terrain as a venue to conduct six nuclear tests since 2006, but recently decided to shut down the site in a show of determination for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The sudden shift in the North's stance came last week when the regime canceled a scheduled high-level inter-Korean meeting, citing the ongoing Max Thunder air force exercises between Seoul and Washington as the cause of the abrupt decision.
The regime has since stepped up its criticism of the South, calling the joint drills a “blatant challenge” to thawing inter-Korean relations.
In particular, Ri Son-Gwon, chairman of the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, threatened Thursday to stop having meetings with the South unless the issue was resolved.
Seoul and Washington, however, reiterated their position to carry out the two-week-long drills without scaling them down just because of the regime's complaints.
Defense ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said Monday its stance remains the same.
“The exercises, conducted annually in a defensive nature, will be carried out as planned,” she said in a media briefing, Monday, dismissing the possibility of downsizing or cancelling the drills in consideration of the ongoing verbal threats from Pyongyang.