N. Korea lambasts US for 'screwing up inter-Korean ties'

By Kim Bo-eun

North Korea stated the U.S. is obstructing inter-Korean projects from making progress, in its state media, Tuesday.

“We are hearing statements of disapproval over various inter-Korean projects daily,” the North's ruling Workers' Party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, said.

The newspaper said the U.S. is preventing the opening of an inter-Korean liaison office in the North, a project connecting the rail networks of the two Koreas, and the resumption of operations at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex and tours to Mount Geumgang.

“The U.S. is even disapproving of a planned summit between leaders of the North and South,” it said.

The remarks come at a time when the opening of the joint contact office in the North's city of Gaeseong has been delayed, and a planned inspection of the North's railway disapproved, after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang was postponed, citing a lack of progress in North Korea's denuclearization.

“Why is the U.S. showing excessive concern over progress in inter-Korean relations and overreacting?” it questioned.

“The U.S. needs to immediately wake up from the hallucination that it can get everything it wants if it wields its bat of sanctions. The future path of the U.S. will open, as much as inter-Korean relations make progress.”