SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned Monday (Nov 24) of the risk of accidental clashes with North Korea, which has cut off all channels of communication with Seoul.
Lee, who has taken several steps to ease tensions since taking office in June, has offered discussions with the North without preconditions, in contrast to his hawkish conservative predecessor.
Pyongyang has yet to respond to Lee’s overtures.
“Inter-Korean relations have, regrettably, turned very hostile and confrontational,” Lee told reporters on a flight from South Africa, where he attended the G20 summit, to Türkiye.
“There is not even the most basic level of trust, and North Korea is making extremely extreme statements and taking extremely extreme actions,” he said, giving examples of recent cases of North Korea installing triple layers of barbed-wire fences on the border.
“We have now reached a situation where we do not know when an accidental clash may occur,” said Lee.
“All lines of connection have been cut. They are refusing all dialogue and contact. It is a very dangerous state,” he added.
Lee, however, said Seoul would continue to pursue communications with the North, saying the South was “always open”.
“Why do we exchange and talk with every other country but not with North Korea? Now let us exchange. And we support the normalisation of relations.”
Seoul last week proposed military talks with Pyongyang to prevent border clashes, the first such offer in seven years.
The nuclear-armed North, however, responded by denouncing an agreement between Seoul and Washington to build nuclear-powered submarines, saying in a state media commentary that the deal would cause a “nuclear domino” effect due to the countries’ “confrontational intention”.
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