North Koreans are shown reading a copy of The Rodong Shinmun (Labor Newspaper) at a kiosk installed at Pyeongyang Station. The North's media slammed Japan for imposing export restrictions on South Korea. (Yonhap News)
By Kim Minji
North Korean media slammed Japan for imposing trade restrictions on South Korea amid rising tension between Tokyo and Seoul.
South Korean media including Yonhap News quoted The Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the North's ruling Workers Party, as calling the restrictions part of the "Abe administration's evil and brutal attitude to realize its goal of militarism and avoid its obligation to compensate Pyeongyang by strengthening economic pressure on Seoul," adding, "We will not stay motionless watching (Japan) shamelessly trampling over our nation.”
The North also attacked Japan's negative view of the development of inter-Korean relations through Meari, a North Korean propaganda website, and The Chosun Sinbo, a Japan-based pro-North newspaper, saying, "If (Japan) disrupts the promotion of inter-Korean cooperation and exchange, its diplomatic position will suffer."
South Korean media analyzed that the North's criticism stemmed from Japan's hardline policy on the enforcement of sanctions on Pyeongyang and Tokyo's accusation that South Korean companies re-exported strategic materials they got from Japan to the North.
kimmj7725@korea.kr
