North Korea rejects economic aid plan offered by Seoul

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea’s president, on Friday rejected the economic aid plan offered by the South Korean government in exchange for denuclearization measures.

North Korea “will never accept the bold initiative” of Yoon Suk Yeol’s executive, Kim said, South Korean news agency Yunhap reported.

“I don’t know what brazen ideas they will knock on the door with in the future, but I make it clear that we will never deal with that,” Kim has assured, after criticizing the plan as “the height of insanity” and describing it as a copy of the failed plan of the conservative government of former President Lee Myung Bak.

South Korea’s president announced Monday that he would be willing to offer a prominent economic aid package to his northern neighbor in exchange for denuclearization.

This plan would take place in the event that Pyongyang decides to take the path of denuclearization, a measure it considers as “essential” to achieve sustainable peace in the region, Yonhap news agency has reported.

To this end, Seoul offered a large-scale food program, as well as assistance to improve infrastructure in the energy sector or the modernization of ports and airports to address international trade. Yoon has also proposed granting aid for efficiency in the agricultural, health or financial sectors.

The South Korean presidential office has reacted to the North Korean president’s sister’s statements, calling them “rude” words.

“We find it highly regrettable that North Korea continues to use foul language while mentioning the president by name and continues to express its nuclear development intentions while distorting our ‘bold plan,'” reads the statement from Yoon’s office, picked up by Yunhap Agency.

Moreover, from Seoul they indicate that “such an attitude of North Korea is not useful” neither for Pyongyang’s own future nor “for the peace and prosperity of the peninsula.” “It will only accelerate its international isolation,” the text concludes.