Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and herself Vice Department Director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, released a press statement this July 28, via the state agency Voice of Korea, stating that North Korea is not interested in any policy change made in South Korea and that no discussion will be held with the bordering state.
The comment comes after newly-elected South Korean liberal president Lee Jae Myung made some moves to ease tension with North Korea. The new president stopped the broadcasting of radio propaganda at the border, halted the launch of balloons with leaflets from activists, and released North Korean fishermen who had drifted south earlier this year.While Yo Jong described these efforts as “sincere,” the lack of willingness for dialogue reflects Kim Jong Un’s new course with the neighboring country.
In 2024, a constitutional change removed the long-standing idea of reunification under Northern terms, officially defining South Korea as a perpetual enemy. Moreover, North Korea is currently tightening its military cooperation with Russia, a move that may further fortify its standalone position.
These events are just the latest episodes in one of the most tense border situations in the world. Indeed, North and South Korea are technically still at war. It all started with the Korean war in 1950, which was one of the first and bloodiest events of the Cold War. The Korean War occurred widely out of the eyes of the global public, receiving little media attention in the United States and very little protest from the people. On the Korean Peninsula, however, war was all-encompassing.
The superpowers of the Cold War used North and South Korea's fight for unification to further their own aspirations of global hegemony, at the cost of millions of lives. Global ignorance regarding the true events of the Korean War persist today, as it remains in the shadows of the infamous wars that preceded and succeeded it.
It's time for a history lesson. Read on if you want to learn more about the Korean War.