PYONGYANG, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday slammed the Republic of Korea (ROK) over its offer of medical supplies, calling the move a "grave provocation" to her country, state media said.
Kim Yo Jong, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, made the remarks in a press statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Kim lashed out at an announcement by the South Korean authorities a day earlier that Seoul submitted to the U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee on the DPRK a request for sanctions exemption in order to offer medical supplies and the request was thereafter approved in May.
She noted that Seoul stated in the request the "lack of medicines and medical equipment and deterioration of public health situation" in the DPRK and its intention to "improve the primary medical service for the vulnerable communities" in the country, calling such statement "an insult to our state and mutant political-motivated provocation against it and a grave encroachment upon our national law," according to the KCNA report.
Saying "the medical equipment supported by the ROK cannot enter our territory," the DPRK official lambasted what she called the "sinister political calculation" behind Seoul's "farce."
Seoul is intended to "make a contrast between the ROK's 'well-meaning attitude' to offer medical supplies and the DPRK's 'conflicting attitude' to reject them," said Kim.
If the ROK really wants to improve the relations between the two countries, it should show its utmost respect and sincerity, she added in the statement.
"We have nothing to exchange or go with the ROK" and no need to deal with the country, Kim said, stressing that no change in "the hostile nature of the DPRK-ROK relations," the KCNA report said.
The ROK's unification ministry released a report which says Seoul submitted to the UN Security Council's sanctions committee on the DPRK a request for sanctions exemption in order to offer medical supplies, Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The ROK government received approval from the sanctions committee in May for its plan to ship medical equipment, Yonhap said in the report. ■