South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol reiterated his diplomatic offer to North Korea on Wednesday: His country would provide economic aid to Pyongyang in exchange for nuclear disarmament. He first outlined his “audacious” plan to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula in May, but no North Korean official had directly commented on it until Friday, when Kim Jong Un’s sister responded with indignation. Kim Yo Jong said the South Korean leader should “shut his mouth,” state media reported, adding that staying quiet would have been better for his image “rather than talking nonsense as he had nothing better to say.” The irascible official added that Yoon was “really simple and still childish” if he really believed North Korea would abandon its nuclear-weapons program in exchange for economic benefits. “No one barters its destiny for corn cake,” she added. South Korea’s unification minister called her fiery response “very disrespectful and indecent.”
