ROK urges DPRK to make sensible choice

SEOUL - A Republic of Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman urged the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Tuesday to change and make a sensible choice.

"It was the stress over the need for change in the DPRK," Cho Tai-young said at a press briefing while answering a question about the previous day's comments by Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se. "(Yun's remarks) were not unusual. All the countries around the world (including the ROK) hope the DPRK would make a sensible choice."

Minister Yun told a global conference of journalists in Seoul on Monday that "we must press on DPRK to realize that there is no hope for economic development without change and that the mere survival of the regime may be in question (without change)."

Yun said that the DPRK should make the right choice, urging Pyongyang to respond to the dialogue offer by the ROK's government.

ROK's President Park Geun-hye said last Thursday that Seoul will push for dialogue with the DPRK. On the same day, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said that the normalization of the Kaesong Industrial Complex should be made through dialogue, urging Pyongyang to "come to the dialogue table". 

On Sunday, a spokesman at the DPRK's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea denounced Seoul's dialogue overtures as "cunning ploy", saying that the ROK has offered no apology for "past crimes" such as its joint military drills with Washington.

The DPRK said on Tuesday that it will start "military demonstration" in response to the ROK's hostility, according to an ultimatum issued by the Korean People's Army's supreme command.

Regarding the ultimatum, the foreign ministry spokesman said that there is no need to comment on it, urging Pyongyang to make a right and sensible choice.