N. Korean official says S. Korea ‘must have learned serious lesson’

By Brian Han

Following the concluded inter-Korean negotiations on Tuesday, a top North Korean official stated that the South would be better off learning a lesson to not fabricate provocations from the North.

Director of the General Political Bureau, Hwang Pyong-so, was referring to the landmine attack, which acted as a catalyst to the rapidly rising tensions experienced on the peninsula.

He was the chief representative for the North during the talks.

This statement was made directly after the communist nation agreed to express regret for those same attacks.

“Through North-South emergency high-level contact this time, the South must have learned a serious lesson that it will bring an armed clash if it creates a groundless case and provoke the other side,” Hwang said on domestic news station Korean Central Television.

He followed up by expressing his relief that the situation had been diffused and his hopes to improve bilateral ties.