Gov`t in drastic shift to more proactively counter N.K.`s rhetoric

"If North Korea has dignity of one person, there is dignity of 50 million people in the Republic of Korea. The North should immediately stop rhetoric threatening all of the South Korean people."

Seoul`s Unification Ministry issued on Tuesday the statement of "the government`s position on North Korea`s criticism and slandering toward South Korea" that included these words. The move came three and a half hours after a statement by the spokesman for the North Korean People`s Army general chief of staff, which said, "We ordered all military units to be ready for operation and mobilization." Watchers say that the Unification Ministry`s move represents a "drastic change" from its past practice.

In recent weeks, the government has more frequently issued statements and expressed its position through the Unification Ministry spokesman, and reacting more promptly to the North. The government is refuting the North`s claims and rationales issue by issue, or specifically elaborating, thus increasing the length of such statements. The government is apparently moving to not take the North`s harsh blasting of the South any longer.

Notably, the government is countering the North by reversely using the North`s cliché "supreme dignity" in connection with Pyongyang`s blasting of President Park Geun-hye by citing her real name. The "supreme dignity" in the North refers to the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, the first secretary of the North Korean Workers` Party and his direct family. On news reports in the South on suspicions over allegations involving Kim Jong Un`s wife Ri Sol Ju, the North reacted angrily, saying, "(the South) defamed supreme dignity, threatened or preached the South by asking President Park "to speak words in line with (her) stature," or "reckless malign remarks will bring about shower of fires." By borrowing these phrases, the Seoul government is countering the North, saying that there is dignity of 50 million people in the Republic of Korea.

"The government will no longer pass over in silence the North`s nonsensical remarks against the South. We will proactively counter them," a South Korean government source said. "We are taking this approach in a bid to correct our misguided method in coping with inter-Korean relations."

The North continues to make anew counterarguments to the South in the form of additional commentaries or a spokesman`s statements. The spokesman for the policy bureau at the North`s National Defense Commission again cited President Park`s real name on Wednesday, when it said, "If (the South) truly intends to resolve the issue with calling her `head of state,` the South will have to take the practical action of halting the game of slandering and defaming us (the North)."