North Korea vows no engagement with South's president

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea announced Friday that there would be no change in its policy under its new leader, Kim Jong Un, striking a characteristically hostile posture with a threat to punish President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea for "unforgivable sins."

The statement from the National Defense Commission, North Korea's highest decision-making body, marked the country's first official pronouncement to the outside world since the regime upheld Kim as its supreme leader Thursday. His elevation came a day after the state funeral of his father, the long-time dictator Kim Jong Il.

"We declare solemnly and confidently that the foolish politicians around the world, including the puppet group in South Korea, should not expect any change from us," said the statement. "We will never deal with the traitor group of Lee Myung-bak."

The commission said it was "entrusted by the party, state and military" to issue the "principled stance." The statement was carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the regime's official mouthpiece to the outside world.

It directed its wrath at Lee, whose government refused to express official condolences to North Korea and allowed only two private delegations to visit Pyongyang during "the great funeral of the nation." It also criticized South Korea's move to place its military on heightened vigilance and conservative South Korean activists' launching of balloons that carried leaflets into the North.

By returning swiftly to its more typical bellicose form after two weeks of mourning, North Korea appeared to demonstrate a confidence that the transition of power in Pyongyang was going smoothly. But the strident rhetoric was also a sign that the regime, as it often has, was using perceived tensions with the outside world to rally its military and people behind the new leader during a sensitive transition.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_19649333?source=rss

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