North Korea rejects Seoul’s medical aid offer as ‘insult’

• North Korea rejected Seoul’s proposed medical aid shipment, calling it an insult and a political provocation

• South Korea planned to supply 1,431 medical items across 166 categories to a hospital in Pyongyang

• Kim Yo-jong ruled out engagement with Seoul, as South Korea indicated it would seek a further UN extension

North Korea has rejected South Korea’s proposed shipment of medical supplies to a hospital in Pyongyang, with Kim Yo-jong describing the humanitarian initiative as an insult and a politically motivated provocation.

In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un criticised the offer and reiterated that Pyongyang had no intention of engaging with Seoul.

South Korea’s unification ministry had planned to send 1,431 medical items across 166 categories to support diagnosis, surgery and treatment at the hospital. The programme received a sanctions exemption from the UN Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee in May, Yonhap reported.

Kim portrayed the initiative as an infringement of North Korea’s laws and linked it to a separate dispute over explosions that injured three South Korean soldiers on 21 September.

Seoul had concluded that North Korean mines caused those explosions. Kim previously dismissed that finding and used her latest statement to characterise the medical aid proposal as another politically staged exercise.

She also maintained that South Korea remained hostile towards North Korea and said there was no reason for the two sides to meet or pursue exchanges.

The rejection comes against a backdrop of deteriorating relations, with dialogue channels and inter-Korean exchanges largely inactive. Even before Kim’s statement, uncertainty surrounded whether Pyongyang would accept the supplies.

Earlier on Thursday, a South Korean unification ministry official said the shipment was unlikely to proceed as planned and that Seoul would seek another extension from the United Nations.

With IANS inputs