North Korea has condemned the joint statement adopted by South Korea and the European Union at their recent summit, designating South Korea as its "principal enemy state." Targeting President Lee Jae-myung in particular, it said he had "thrown off the mask of peace" and reaffirmed its existing position that inter-Korean relations are "permanently hostile two-state relations."
In a statement issued Friday under the name of a "Tenth Bureau spokesperson," North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said of the Korea-EU summit joint statement: "Whatever the Seoul authorities say or do, it is a challenge to us, and our principle of treating South Korea thoroughly as a hostile state remains unchanged."
North Korea took issue with the joint statement's condemnation of North Korea-Russia military cooperation and its content regarding denuclearization. The spokesperson asserted, "This is a clear violation of our state's sovereignty and a grave hostile act, tantamount to South Korea itself discarding the camouflage signboards such as 'respect for the system' and 'no pursuit of hostile acts' that it has long worn out its mouth repeating."
The spokesperson then accused, "The South Korean ruler has thrown off the 'peace' mask he had been awkwardly wearing."
It also condemned, "Through this declaration of confrontation, the South Korean ruler has proven the reality that there can be no 'peaceful coexistence' between North and South, and that they can only be permanently hostile two-state relations," adding, "The South Korean ruler displaying his characteristic 'frankness' shows that he no longer has the face to stage deceptive plays such as a 'peace declaration' or a 'peaceful two-state theory.'"
It further claimed, "Apart from hostility toward our state, the principal enemy state that absolutely cannot exist, the U.S. 'dagger' for the invasion of Korea and the Asian continent — that is the very substance and destiny of South Korea. It was an inevitable consequence that the 'dagger' favored by the United States tore through the silk wrapping cloth of 'peace' and burst out."
Earlier, President Lee Jae-myung held a summit on Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium, with António Costa, President of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and adopted a joint statement. The joint statement included phrases such as "strongly condemn the illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea" and "North Korea will never be recognized as a nuclear-weapon state under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)."
Meanwhile, the "Tenth Bureau" that issued this statement is an organization newly established under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which handles diplomatic and external affairs, after North Korea defined inter-Korean relations as "hostile two-state relations," and is in charge of affairs concerning South Korea.
