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Yoon Min-sik

The Korea Herald

Publication Date : 13-03-2013

North Korea on Wednesday dismissed South Korea’s claim that the armistice agreement remains valid, arguing that the South is not qualified to discuss the matter.

“The [South Korean] puppets that worked as a tool for America and drove the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war should not be shamelessly discussing the current problem,” the Rodong Sinmun, the daily of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said. “Furthermore, the South Korean puppets are not even the directly involved party in the armistice.”

The newspaper added that truce agreements are not retained by words and can be made void by actions, saying that the United States and South Korea are responsible for the tensions in the peninsula.

Pyongyang warned last week that it will scrap the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, in protest of the annual South Korea-US Key Resolve exercise. It also cut off the inter-Korean communication hotline that runs through the truce village of Panmunjom as of Monday.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that the truce remains valid, saying that the terms of the agreement cannot be unilaterally terminated.