DPRK dismisses aid offer from ROK

SEOUL－A senior official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has said that Pyongyang will never accept the offer from the Republic of Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol of economic benefits in exchange for denuclearization steps.

Kim Yo-jong, vice-department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, gave the dismissive response in a commentary published by state media on Friday.

In the statement, Kim Yo-jong questioned the sincerity of the ROK's calls for improved bilateral relations while it continues its combined military exercises with the United States and fails to stop civilian activists from flying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets and other "dirty waste" across their border.

In a televised speech on Monday, Yoon proposed an "audacious" economic assistance package to the DPRK if it takes steps to abandon its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program. The offers of large-scale aid in food and healthcare, and for modernizing electricity generation systems and seaports and airports, weren't meaningfully different from previous proposals rejected by Pyongyang.

Kim Yo-jong said in a statement released by the Korean Central News Agency that Seoul's words and actions would only incite "surging hatred and wrath" from the people of the DPRK and insisted Pyongyang has no immediate plans to revive long-stalled diplomacy with Seoul.

The ROK's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, expressed "strong regret" over Kim Yo-jong's comments.

On Wednesday, the ROK's military said it had detected Pyongyang firing two suspected cruise missiles toward the sea and identified the western coastal site of Onchon as the launch location. In the statement, Kim Yo-jong said the weapons were fired from a bridge in the city of Anju, north of Onchon and farther inland, and ridiculed the ROK and US capacities to monitor the DPRK's missile activities.

Agencies via Xinhua