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Thanks a lot, President Putin, and flake off, South Korea. That’s about the sum and substance of North Korea’s response to offers of aid in the aftermath of floods that may have killed 1,000 or more North Korean citizens.
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, was full of gratitude to Mr. Putin for expressing his “deepest sympathy” along with the promise of “immediate humanitarian support,” as reported by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency.
Mr. Kim did not immediately take up the offer, preferring to show he was able to conquer all problems on his own after the North Korean news agency showed pictures of him in a raft visiting the flooded northwestern region along the Yalu River across from China. Rather, Mr. Kim exuded “special emotion towards a genuine friend in the most difficult period,” the agency reported, and “if necessary” would “ask for it to the truest friends in Moscow.”
Mr. Kim was furious, though, over South Korea’s reporting on the flooding — and has yet to say a word in response to the South’s offer to rush aid to the North. The news agency quoted the “respected leader” as accusing “the enemy’s garbage media” of “spreading fabricated news reports that several helicopters on a rescue mission appear to have fallen” while falsely claiming the death toll might reach 1,500.
South Korea’s Yonhap News said Mr. Kim’s “hostile stance against Seoul raised the possibility that Pyongyang is unlikely to accept South Korea’s proposal for aid.”
Earlier, South Korea’s unification ministry had said it expected a “swift reaction” to the South’s offer, raising hopes of resuming talks with the North that ended with the failure of President Trump’s second summit with Mr. Kim in Hanoi in 2019. Nor has North Korea responded to offers from either the International Federation of Red Cross or the UN Development Coordination Office.
Mr. Kim did fire the public security minister and other top officials for failing to respond fast enough to the flood while portraying himself as a heroic leader. North Korean helicopters, on his orders, picked up 5,000 people trapped by the floodwaters, said the North Korean news agency.
North Korea’s biggest benefactor, China, which supplies the North with most of its oil and half its food, has so far said nothing.
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