North Korea calls Seoul’s economic aid plan ‘height of absurdity’

South Korean President Yoon this week proposed an ‘audacious’ plan of food, energy and infrastructure help for Pyongyang if it gives up its nuclear weapons

Calling Yoon ‘childish’, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also ruled out face-to-face talks with Seoul

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Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. File photo: KCNA/KNS via AP

Published: 9:52am, 19 Aug 2022Updated: 10:47am, 19 Aug 2022

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday slammed Seoul’s offer of economic assistance in return for denuclearisation as the “height of absurdity” and dismissed the possibility of face-to-face talks.

The statement follows South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol this week putting forward an “audacious” aid plan that would include food, energy and infrastructure help in return for the North abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.

Analysts previously said the chances of Pyongyang accepting such an offer – first floated during Yoon’s inaugural speech – were vanishingly slim, as the North, which invests a vast chunk of its GDP into weapons programmes, has long made it clear it will not make that trade.

Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, on Friday called Yoon’s offer the “height of absurdity”, adding the entire premise of the North willingly putting its nuclear programme on the table was wrong.

“To think that the plan to barter ‘economic cooperation’ for our honour, [our] nukes, is the great dream, hope and plan of Yoon, we came to realise that he is really simple and still childish,” Kim Yo-jong said in a statement carried by the official Korea Central News Agency.

“We make it clear that we will not sit face-to-face with him,” she added.