North Korea denies drone flights

SEOUL, May 12 (Reuters): North Korea on Monday accused U.S. and South Korean authorities of fabricating the results of a probe that concluded Pyongyang sent small surveillance drones, or unmanned aircraft, to spy on key South Korean installations in March.

A spokesman for the North’s military attacked the United States for what it said was a blindly-backed confrontational conspiracy devised by the government of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, whom it called a “political prostitute”.

“If Washington pays heed only to what its stooges trumpet, it is bound to be accused of being a senile grandfather trying to stop a child from crying,” the unnamed spokesman said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

South Korean Ministry of Defence spokesman Kim Min-seok said the North’s statement was “deeply regrettable”. “North Korea isn’t a real country is it? It doesn’t have human rights or freedom. It exists solely to prop up a single person,” Kim said at a briefing in Seoul. North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The North Korean statement was the latest in a recent series of written attacks by the North against the South Korean president, whom it has previously likened to a “comfort woman”. In April, North Korea described Barack Obama as Park’s “pimp”, and in an article this month called the U.S. president a “wicked black monkey”.

South Korean and U.S. officials jointly examined three drones that were recovered in three different locations near the Korean border over a two-week period starting in late March. The second was discovered soon after a three-hour artillery barrage between North and South Korea in waters near a disputed maritime border. In April, North Korea proposed a joint probe into the crashed drones with the South, but Seoul rejected the proposal.

North Korea said in the statement the joint investigation into the origin of the drones was a “charade”, designed to divert public criticism of the South Korean government’s handling of the Sewol ferry tragedy. Park’s government has faced continued criticism for its handling of the disaster from the families of the ferry victims, many of whom believe a swifter initial response could have saved many more lives.

 

SEOUL, May 12 (AP): A rhetorical battle between the rival Koreas intensified Monday with a South Korean official saying North Korea “must disappear soon.”
The comments, which will likely draw a furious response from Pyongyang, followed a series of sexist and racist slurs by North Korea against the leaders of South Korea and the United States. Pyongyang’s state media likened South Korean President Park Geun-hye to an “old prostitute” and U.S. President Barack Obama to a “monkey” in recent dispatches.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters at a briefing in Seoul that North Korea isn’t a real country and exists for the benefit of only one person, a reference to dictator Kim Jong Un. He said the North has no human rights or public freedoms.

South Korea has been highly critical of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, including recent rocket and missile tests and apparent preparations for a fourth nuclear test. But the comments from Seoul on Monday are stronger than normal. South Korea tries to avoid publicly talking about anything that could be interpreted as a collapse of the North Korean government because of worries that Pyongyang would raise tensions.

Pyongyang has been ramping up its rhetoric against Seoul and Washington since Obama and Park met in Seoul last month. During that visit, Obama said that it may be time to consider further sanctions against North Korea and that the U.S. will not hesitate to use its military might to defend its allies. South Korea has called the North’s verbal insults against Park immoral and unacceptable. The U.S. State Department described the North’s racist slurs against Obama as “disgusting.”