DPRK slams South Korean news agency for "smear campaign"

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday rejected an accusation by South Korea's largest news agency that its leadership carries out a "horror and dictatorial policy", calling the accusation "a smear campaign."

A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea lashed out at the Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's biggest news service based in Seoul, for saying that the DPRK leadership is pursuing the policy of "horror and dictatorship", according to a statement released by the DPRK's state news agency KCNA.

"This is not only an intolerable insult to the dignity of the DPRK's supreme leadership but also a grave politically-motivated provocation aimed at plunging the inter-Korean relations into catastrophe," the spokesman said.

He added that South Korean authorities manipulated the report behind the scene, showing that Seoul has "no idea of mending inter-Korean relations through dialogue."

The criticism came amid ameliorative relationship between the north and south after an agreement was reached in late August to defuse border tensions. The agreement suggested plans to hold senior-level governmental talks at an earliest date possible.

On Thursday, the two Koreas agreed in a working-level contact to hold a vice ministerial-level meeting on Dec. 11 at the Kaesong industrial complex jointly operated by Pyongyang and Seoul, which is expected to discuss concerns that could help improve inter-Korean relations. Endi