Story highlights
Pyongyang complains Seoul has refusing to let citizens pay respects to Kim Jong Il
The North says it won't engage with the current South Korean government
The comments come after two days of ceremonies to honor Kim Jong Il, who died this month
The late dictator's son Kim Jong Un is being portrayed as the new 'supreme leader'
North Korea said Friday that it would not deal with the current South Korean government, suggesting its stance toward relations with Seoul remained unchanged following the death this month of its longtime leader, Kim Jong Il.
“As we announced before, (we) won’t engage with Lee Myung-bak’s traitor group,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report cited by Yonhap, the official South Korean news agency. Lee is the South Korean president.
The statement came after two days of elaborate ceremonies in Pyongyang that honored Kim Jong Il and underlined the rise of his son and chosen successor, Kim Jong Un, to the position of “supreme leader” of the secretive state.
The KCNA report criticized the South Korean government’s decision to allow only a select group of private citizens to visit Pyongyang to pay their respects to Kim Jong Il.
“The evil deed of Lee Myung-bak’s traitor group peaked when it banned South Koreans from expressing their condolences and visiting North Korea,” KCNA said.