(LEAD) Yoon vows multiple-times stronger punishment in event of N.K. provocation

▲ President Yoon Suk Yeol (3rd from L) leads a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Jan. 16, 2024. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) Yoon-N Korea

(LEAD) Yoon vows multiple-times stronger punishment in event of N.K. provocation

(ATTN: UPDATES with more remarks by Yoon, background)

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Tuesday to punish North Korea multiple times as hard in the event it carries out a provocation against South Korea, shortly after the North vowed to completely occupy the South in case of war.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also said during a parliamentary meeting Monday that the country should revise its constitution to define the South as its "primary foe and invariable principal enemy," rather than a partner for reconciliation and unification.

"The current Republic of Korea government is different from any previous government," Yoon said during a Cabinet meeting, referring to South Korea by its formal name. "Our military has an overwhelming response capability ... Should North Korea provoke us, we will punish them multiple times as hard."

Tensions between the two Koreas run high as Pyongyang has fired artillery near the western sea border in recent weeks and launched an intermediate-range missile on Sunday in its first ballistic test of the year.

Referring to the North Korean statement, Yoon said Kim vowed not to recognize the Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea, carrying out a "political provocation" meant to divide South Korea and make its people anxious.

"The conventional disguised peace tactic that threatens with a choice between war and peace will not work anymore," he said, in an apparent reference to the pro-reconciliation policy of his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in. "The fake peace that we earn by bowing to threats of provocation will only plunge our security into greater danger."

Yoon called on the nation and government to come together as one to "defeat" the deceptive tactics and propaganda of the North Korean regime.

He also said North Korea's recent definition of South-North relations as those between "hostile" nations amounted to an acknowledgement of the regime's nature as an "anti-national and anti-historical group."

Still, Yoon called for embracing the North Korean people, who are South Korean citizens under the country's Constitution, and instructed the unification ministry to designate a day for North Korean defectors.

"The North Korean people are one people with us, with the same rights as us to enjoy freedom, human rights and prosperity," he said.

(END)

<저작권자(c) 연합뉴스, 무단 전재-재배포, AI 학습 및 활용 금지>

(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved