North Korea dismissed interpretations in South Korea that Kim Jong-un had given a positive assessment of the expression of regret by President Lee Jae Myung over the drone incursion incident as “a hope-tinged dream of stupid fools.” It is seen as an attempt to block efforts by the South to explore a dialogue phase using the expression of regret over the drones as a starting point.

Jang Kum-chol, First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and director of Bureau 10, in a statement released via the Korean Central News Agency on the night of the 7th, said of the statement issued on the 6th by Kim Yo-jong, a Workers Party Central Committee department director, that if the South takes it as ‘an exceptional friendly response’, ‘a swift reciprocal (mutual) reaffirmation of intent between the leaders’ and speaks as if it were a daydream, this too will be recorded as “a hope-tinged dream of stupid fools that astonishes the world.”

Jang said, “the core of the statement was a clear warning.” He said the subtext of the statement by Kim, as he interpreted it, was: “If you want to live safely, you should also know how to acknowledge your own guilt frankly. Among that shameless crowd, was there nevertheless someone acceptably candid? If you want to live safely, prevent any recurrence.”

Jang conveyed that, regarding South Korea joining as a co-sponsor of the North Korea human rights resolution at the UN Human Rights Council on the 30th of last month, Kim said she had described South Korea as “mangy dogs that bark along without thinking because neighborhood dogs bark.” Jang concluded with the remark that “the identity of South Korea, the most hostile adversary state, can never change regardless of what its authorities say or do.”

This statement is seen as intended to preempt attempts by the South to open a channel for inter-Korean dialogue using the expression of regret by the president over the drones as an opening. Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said it seeks to block the possibility of resuming inter-Korean talks by publicly ridiculing the South Korean government interpretation, adding that it strengthened the logic for blocking dialogue by using participation in the North Korea human rights resolution as ‘double behavior’ (as a hook).

Through this statement, it was officially confirmed that Bureau 10 (formerly the United Front Department) under the Workers Party has been incorporated into the Foreign Ministry under the Cabinet. It is interpreted as a reconfiguration that, in line with the two-hostile-states policy, recast work toward the South as part of foreign affairs. Yang Moo-jin, a distinguished professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said, “it has been confirmed that Foreign Ministry Bureau 10 oversees work toward the South and that Jang Kum-chol is the person with overall responsibility.”

Earlier, at a Cabinet meeting on the morning of the 7th, President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret over the North Korean drone intrusion; that night, Kim Yo-jong stated in a commentary that “our head of state assessed this as having shown the stance of a candid and magnanimous person” and that “all reckless acts of provocation must be stopped.”