North Korea slams President Park for fueling inter-Korean tensions

North Korea slammed President Park Geun-hye Tuesday for fueling tensions with provocative anti-Pyongyang remarks made during her recent trip to Europe. The North's Korean Central News Agency, citing a statement issued by an unidentified spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), referred to Park by name and accused her of being a hypocrite and only focused on maintaining a confrontational stance with the DPRK. The DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. During her recent trip to France, Britain and Belgium, Park, who has made "trust building" the cornerstone of her North Korean policy, called on the isolationist country to get rid of its nuclear weapons and improve human rights. This call was issued in the joint declaration made last Friday marking the 50th anniversary of formal South Korea-European Union diplomatic relations. The CPRK said such remarks are "ludicrous" and a shameful move to slander her fellow Koreans in the North. "Park failed to see that by slandering others, she only shamed herself," said the organization in charge of carrying out all inter-Korean relations. Pyongyang also said Park's remarks made in a interview with the French daily Le Figaro on her willingness to hold summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un showed the politician's duplicitous nature to weaken the North. The report, moreover, said that Park's penchant for making speeches in foreign languages should be stopped. The North has maintained the position that any mention of giving up its nuclear weapons program is a ploy to undermine the North. It has on numerous occasions made clear it will never give up its nuclear program. On the North's latest outburst, an official from Seoul's unification ministry said Pyongyang really needs to abstain from making derogatory comments against the president. "The North constantly mentions the two Koreas are of one, yet they continue to lash out at the South Korean leader," he said. The official, who declined to be identified, pointed out that the North's actions are both embarrassing and disgraceful. Touching on the North's stance on the nuclear program, the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, said Monday that the communist country will never take the first step to dismantle its nuclear deterrence regardless of outside demands. It said Pyongyang is in no hurry to resolve outstanding issues or is fearful of the outside world, indicating that the country is not interested in returning to the six-party talks, aimed at ending its nuclear program, if it must first declare it willingness to give up its weapons of mass destruction. Seoul and Washington, on the other hand, said the North needs to formally declare its adherence to the Sept. 19 Joint Statement made in 2005, that obliges the North to move forward with "verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner."