South Korean President Park Geun-hye has demanded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to apologize for alleged provocations as emergency contact between the two sides continues, the presidential office said Monday.
"Apology and recurrence prevention for any provocative act, including North Korea (DPRK)'s landmine provocation that caused the current situation, is the most important thing," Park said during a meeting with senior presidential secretaries.
Park said that Seoul would never yield to Pyongyang though the latter maximizes provocations and poses threats to security as seen in the past, emphasizing that "clear apology and recurrence prevention" would be needed to cut off the past repetition of provocations and unstable situations.
Without the DPRK's apology and pledge to prevent recurrence, Park said, South Korea will continue to broadcast pro-democracy messages with loudspeakers in frontline areas and take other measures.
Her comments came amid the ongoing emergency contact between her chief security advisor Kim Kwan-jin and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un's chief military aide Hwang Pyong So, which has lasted for more than 19 hours from late Sunday at the border village of Panmunjom.
Two South Korean soldiers were maimed on Aug. 4 by the blast of landmines inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which Seoul claimed had been deliberately planted by DPRK forces. Pyongyang denied any involvement during the ongoing talks.
On Aug. 10, South Korea resumed blasting propaganda messages into the DPRK with banks of loudspeakers in response to the landmine blast, and the DPRK called it "a declaration of war."
South Korea said that it fired back a barrage of artillery into the DPRK in frontlines areas Thursday after the DPRK shelling of the southern part of the DMZ. But Pyongyang denied the allegation, saying that it was a fabrication.
The South Korean side called for clear acknowledgment and apology for the mines explosion and shelling attack on the DMZ, while the DPRK demanded the stop of propaganda broadcasts in South Korean army units along the border.
President Park said that South Korea will sternly retaliate against any DPRK provocations, but she noted that if the ongoing inter-Korean talks go well, the country will make best efforts for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean military also said Monday that deployment of U.S. strategic military assets, including nuclear-capable B-52 bomber and nuclear-armed submarine, over the Korean Peninsula has been under discussion amid heightened tensions between South Korea and the DPRK.
"South Korea and the United States now continue to closely watch the Korean Peninsula's crisis situation, and are flexibly reviewing the timing of the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a press briefing.
