DPRK blasts South Korean conservatives for trying to derail inter-Korean reconciliation

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Tuesday blasted South Korean conservatives for trying to thwart attempts at inter-Korean reconciliation.
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary that “conservative groups in South Korea have gone desperate” in trying to undermine the rapprochement between Pyongyang and Seoul since the beginning of the year.
It said the Liberal Korea Party (LKP) of South Korea blamed the government of President Moon Jae-in for cooperating with the DPRK on the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and taking measures to ease tensions on the peninsula.
The KCNA further quoted Hong Jun Phyo, president of the LKP, as saying that Moon’s possible trip to the DPRK would be “tantamount to congratulating” the DPRK’s nuclear development.
The DPRK’s official media frequently blasts South Korean conservatives for collaborating with the United States in an attempt to derail any detente between the north and south.
South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo told a parliamentary defense committee Tuesday that he and his U.S. counterpart, James Mattis, will announce plans for a postponed joint military exercise. South Korean and U.S. militaries regularly hold joint drills in March and April in moves that Pyongyang sees as preparations for invasion against it.
The decision by Seoul and Washington to postpone the drills until the end of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games being held in PyeongChang, South Korea, led to the DPRK sending its athletes to the event.
The DPRK’s official daily Minju Joson on Tuesday accused the conservative forces of supporting the resumption of U.S.-South Korean joint military drills.
“In case tensions rise again between the north and the south and cause irrevocable consequences, the U.S., Japan and the puppet conservative forces must bear all blame,” said the daily.