South Korean Defense Ministry spokesperson Kim Min-seok speaks about the outcome of a government investigation into unmanned drones recently found near the inter-Korean border areas, during a news conference at the ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 8, 2014. Seoul’s Defense Ministry announced Thursday that a joint investigation by South Korea and the U.S. concluded three drones found in the South in March and April were flown by North Korea on military surveillance missions. A ministry statement called the drone flights a military provocation and said that South Korea will strongly react to it. North Korea has denied it sent such drones, accusing South Korea of plotting another fabrication that shows its confrontational stance on the North. AP
SEOUL, South Korea— South Korea is continuing an escalating rhetorical battle on the Korean Peninsula, with an official saying rival North Korea “must disappear soon.”
South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok also said Monday 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 says the North has no human rights or public freedoms.
The comments 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.
Pyongyang’s rhetoric intensified after Obama and Park met in Seoul last month.
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