Unification minister vows stronger deterrence against N.K. provocations

SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to bolster its alliance with the United States in a bid to build a stronger deterrence system against North Korea's possible military provocations, Seoul's pointman on the North said Tuesday.

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho made the remark during a ceremony marking the start of work in the new year, after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened to "suppress the whole territory" of South Korea in a contingency at a year-end key party meeting.

"The government will craft a 'thicker and more elevated' deterrence system through the strengthening of the Seoul-Washington alliance in order to brace for Pyongyang's potential military provocations," the minister said.

He said North Korea would have to give up its nuclear weapons eventually if it bumps against Seoul-Washington's powerful "wall of the deterrence regime."

In a New Year's message issued Monday, President Yoon Suk Yeol said South Korea and the U.S. will complete a strengthened "extended deterrence" regime in the first half of 2024 against North Korea.

At last week's party plenary meeting, the North's leader defined inter-Korean ties as relations "between two states hostile to each other" and vowed to "overwhelmingly" bolster war readiness against the U.S.

South Korea's unification ministry said North Korea is expected to stage any form of provocative acts in a bid to fulfill its leader's order to subjugate the South's territory.

Meanwhile, a ranking ministry official said North Korea appears to be staging high-intensity psychological warfare against South Korea by slamming the South's conservative and liberal governments altogether.

At the party meeting, Kim condemned South Korea for seeking to destroy the North's regime, saying there has been no difference in Seoul's policy on North Korea regardless of whether they were conservative or liberal governments.

"North Korea apparently intends to bring confusion to South Koreans over their perception of the government's policy on North Korea," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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