Pyongyang slams EU for 'inciting hostility' on Korean Peninsula

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Pyongyang slams EU for 'inciting hostility' on Korean Peninsula

Published: 26 May. 2023, 09:53 Updated: 26 May. 2023, 13:38

President Yoon Suk Yeol, center, speaks during a joint press briefing with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Charles Michel after their talks at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Monday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

North Korea on Thursday denounced the European Union (EU) for "inciting confrontation and hostility" on the Korean Peninsula in response to a recent South Korea-EU summit, during which the leaders condemned Pyongyang's nuclear and missile provocations.

Citing an article by North Korean international affairs analyst Pak Myong-chol, the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency accused the EU of pursuing an "unbalanced" policy in favor of South Korea to gain its support for Ukraine.

"The EU, getting exposed to a security crisis after the outbreak of the Ukrainian event [···] is now extending their begging hand even to South Korea completely subordinated to the U.S. militarily and taking a very unfair and prejudiced stand on the Korean Peninsula issue at the end of its desperate efforts for winning military support for Ukraine," the report said.

On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel held a summit with President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul and issued a joint statement condemning Pyongyang's repeated ballistic missile launches and nuclear threats.

The European leaders also visited the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two Koreas, on the same day.

The report said the EU has lost its "strategic independence almost completely" under its alliance with the United States.

"The EU should awake to the fact that if it blindly follows the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK as now, it will be held accountable for escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula together with the United States."

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

The article also noted that during their visit to Seoul, the EU leaders called the North's nuclear programs a threat to regional peace and said the EU won't accept North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons.

"The EU had better get used to the status of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state now," Pak said, noting it has never asked the EU to recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapons state.

Yonhap