| Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, delivers a speech during an emergency meeting to discuss measures to counter COVID-19 spread in the country, held Aug. 10 in Pyongyang, in this photo released by the state-run Korean Central Television the following day. Yonhap |
The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Friday her regime will never accept the South Korean government's "audacious initiative" that seeks to help Pyongyang improve its economy in return for denuclearization steps.
Kim Yo-jong slammed the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's plan as the height of folly, describing it as nothing but a copy of the former conservative Lee Myung-bak government's approach, called the Vision 3,000 for Denuclearization and Opening, which ended in failure.
"I don't know what brash ideas they will come knocking on the door with in the future, but I make it clear that we will never deal with it," she said in the statement carried by the North's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun.
It came four days after Yoon used his Liberation Day speech to lay out some details of the plan, one of his key campaign pledges, aimed at helping the impoverished North develop its economy in the event that it takes denuclearization steps. Yoon's offer to Pyongyang included a bold program of economic assistance, development and infrastructure investment.
Kim, who serves as vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, is apparently in charge of inter-Korean affairs (Yonhap).