A news vendor counts her money near a stack of newspapers with a photo of US President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un on its front page in Singapore. Wong Maye-E / AP
A news vendor counts her money near a stack of newspapers with a photo of US President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un on its front page in Singapore. Wong Maye-E / AP

North Korea media’s hyperbolic rhetoric back



North Korean media stepped up their rhetorical attacks on South Korea and joint military exercises with the United States, warning on Tuesday that a budding detente could be in danger.

State media unleashed three strongly worded commentaries slamming Seoul and Washington for the maneuvers and demanding Seoul take action against defectors it claimed were sending anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border.

The official media had until recently taken a relatively subdued tone amid the North's diplomatic overtures to its neighbours, including a summit with South Korea's president last month and plans for leader Kim Jong Un to meet US President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12.

That first changed last week, when it lashed out against the maneuvers, cut high-level contacts with Seoul and threatened to "reconsider" the Trump summit.

One of the reports on Tuesday, which came as North Korea allowed an airplane full of foreign journalists into the country to cover the dismantling of its nuclear test site this week, accused Seoul of teaming up with Washington for military drills intended as a show of force and as a "war drill" against it.

It's not unusual for North Korea's official media to turn to hyperbole to make a point and the rhetorical barrage coincides with a visit to Washington by South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Strongly worded messages don't necessarily mean it is backing away from diplomatic negotiations.

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Read more:

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Donald Trump tells Kim Jong-un: Make a deal or risk same fate as Qaddafi

North Korea threatens to cancel US summit

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But the North's abrupt sharpening of its words has raised concerns the Trump summit may prove to be a bumpy one — or that it could even be in jeopardy. President Trump has suggested he is willing to walk away if Mr Kim isn't willing to have a fruitful meeting and it appears both sides have agendas that remain far apart from each other.

There has been no indication that North Korea will cancel plans to dismantle the test site, an important gesture of goodwill. The North has also not suggested it will go back on its promise to halt underground testing and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

But it did ban South Korean journalists from the trip to the nuclear site.

The eight South Koreans were excluded because Pyongyang has cut off high-level contact with Seoul to protest an exercise with the US military — a protest the North's media reiterated Tuesday, saying saber-rattling and dialogue don't mix.

And the language on Tuesday offered a veiled threat that talks could be harmed.

"Dialogue and saber-rattling can never go together," said the commentary published in Minju Joson, one of the country's four main daily newspapers.

"There are some arguments describing the improvement of the situation on the Korean Peninsula as 'result of hard-line diplomacy' of the US and 'result of sustained pressure,'" said another, by the official KCNA news agency. "It seriously chills the atmosphere of the DPRK-US dialogue and is of no help to the development of the situation."

DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

Yet another article lashed out at South Korean authorities for allowing defectors to send anti-North Korea leaflets across their border.

It noted that the two leaders agreed at their summit in the Demilitarised Zone last month not to conduct hostile acts against each other and said the authorities have an obligation under that agreement to block such actions, even by private citizens.

"If the North-South relations face a grave difficulty again owing to the provocation of human scum, the blame for it will be entirely on the South Korean authorities," the report said. "They must know what price they will be made to pay."

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MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League, last-16, second leg (first-leg scores in brackets):

PSG (2) v Manchester United (0)

Midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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Stage 2 results

Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal 04:18:18

Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:00:02

Arnaud Demare (FRA) Groupama-FDJ 00:00:04

4 Diego Ulissi (ITA) UAE Team Emirates

5 Rick Zabel (GER) Israel Start-Up Nation

General Classification

Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal 07:47:19

2 Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:00:12

3 Arnaud Demare (FRA) Groupama-FDJ 00:00:16

4 Nikolai Cherkasov (RUS) Gazprom-Rusvelo 00:00:17

5 Alexey Lutsensko (KAZ) Astana Pro Team 00:00:19

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