In a strange gesture, Kim Jong-un thanked the outgoing president of South Korea for his efforts to improve the relationship

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un exchanged letters with outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in and thanked him for his efforts to improve relations between the two countries, state news agency KCNA reported Friday.

Moon sent a letter on Wednesday and pledged continued efforts to help lay the groundwork for unification on the joint declarations reached at its summits in 2018, KCNA said.

In his response on Thursday, Kim said that their “historic” summits in 2018 gave people “hope for the future”, and the two agreed that ties would develop if both sides “make tireless efforts with hope.”

“Kim Jong-un appreciated Moon Jae-in's pains and efforts for the great cause of the nation until the last days of his mandate,” KCNA reported, adding that the exchange of letters is an “expression of his deep trust.”

In early April, the North Korean regime condemned comments by the South Korean Defense Minister talking about the country's capabilities to attack its neighbor, and urged Seoul to be more restrained “if it wants to avoid a disaster.”

In a statement released last Sunday, April 3 by the state news agency, KCNA, the sister of dictator Kim Jong-un and current senior member of the North Korean single party, Kim Yo-jong, accused Minister Suh Wook of “further worsening inter-Korean relations and military tension on the Korean peninsula” for his rhetoric “reckless”.

Defense Minister Suh made comments highlighting the South Korean army's possession of varied missiles capable of accurately and quickly attacking any part of North Korea if it detects the launch of a missile.

Suh “dared to mention a 'pre-emptive strike' against a nuclear-armed state in its senseless bravado, which will never be beneficial to South Korea,” said Kim, noting that Pyongyang will “reconsider many things” regarding Seoul, which “may face a serious threat because of its reckless remarks.”

“North Korea should discipline itself if it wants to avoid disaster,” Kim added.

In another statement also released this Saturday, North Korean military and politburo member Pak Jong-chon also referred to Suh's words and assured that if Seoul embarks on “a dangerous military action,” Pyongyang will “mercilessly lead all its military force to destroy important targets in Seoul and its army.”

“The Korean peninsula is technically at war. Any slight error of judgment and misstatement that disturbs the other party in the current situation, in which acute military tension persists, can become a spark that triggers a dangerous conflict and a full-blown war,” said Pak.

Both countries have never signed a peace agreement after the civil war that confronted them between 1950 and 1953, which resulted in an armistice.

Tension between the two countries has increased this year with repeated missile tests, the most recent last week, with which it has already accumulated 12 tests, a record figure for 2022 so far.

The tests in the North have sometimes been answered by South Korean weapons tests.

The United States and South Korea began their combined military maneuvers this week at a time of special tension on the peninsula marked by the arms escalation and repeated tests of North Korea's projectiles, which also appears to be preparing a nuclear test.

“The Republic of Korea (official name of South Korea) and the United States have decided to conduct their combined command post training (CCPT) for the first half of 2022 for 9 days starting on April 18,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) explained in a statement.

The training, which is based on computer simulations, starts just a day after Pyonyang announced that it has tested a new projectile designed to equip tactical nuclear weapons.

(With information from Reuters and EFE)

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