North Korea
sent a written notice under the name of the Secretariat of the
National Defense Commission to the Office of National Security
through the West Sea Military Communications Channel early this
morning (October 29, 2014).
In the written notice,
North Korea stated that South Korea is turning a blind eye to the
activities of leaflet scattering with an excuse that “there is no
legal ground and regulations that can confine such
activities.”
North Korea argued that the South is
not interested in creating a friendly atmosphere, which is a
prerequisite for improved inter-Korean relations and dialogue and
that the South is moving towards the direction of cancelling the
second high-level inter-Korean talks.
North Korea
stated that the second high-level inter-Koreans talks will take
place or be cancelled depending on South Korea’s decision to
either stop the activities of leaflet scattering or continue
ignoring the activities.
The
ROK government would like to reiterate that we cannot meet the
North’s demand to restrain the activities of leaflet scattering
given the nature of our political system.
We have
made our position clear on the leaflet scattering on many
occasions, including the high-level talks held back in
February.
North Korea’s demand to halt the
scattering of leaflets as a prerequisite for making a friendly
atmosphere for inter-Korean talks make us doubt North Korea’s
sincerity on its will to improve inter-Korean relations.
We express our regret over the fact that, with North
Korea’s such demand, it has become difficult to hold the second
high-level talks on October 30 as we suggested earlier.
Our government maintains a consistent stance that the two
Koreas should solve the pending issues through dialogue, but we
cannot accept unreasonable demands.