| May
1 | - The ROK government announces
its position regarding the promotion of exchanges in the
private sector to restore a sense of unity between South and
North Korea on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of
national liberation.
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| May
2 | - North Korea publicly
announces that it arrested Joo Won-moon (a South Korean
citizen, U.S. permanent resident, and student at New York
University, 21) for “illegally entering the North.”
|
| May 4 |
- The ROK and the U.S. hold a meeting of chief delegates
for the Six-Party Talks and discuss plans to denuclearize
North Korea.
|
| May 4 |
- The ROK government urges the North
to release four South Korean citizens, including Joo
Won-moon, detained in the North (in a statement by the
Unification Ministry spokesperson).
|
| May 5 | - South and North
Korea have contact in advance for the June 15 Joint Event
(May 5-7, Shenyang) and hold a meeting for the compilation
of Gyeoremal-keunsajeon (Big Dictionary of the Korean
People’s Language).
|
| May
5 | - The ROK and China hold a
meeting of chief delegates for the Six-Party Talks and
discuss plans to denuclearize North Korea.
|
| May 8 | - North
Korea's Southwest Frontline Military Command issues a
special emergency warning that if a South Korean vessel
invades the territorial waters (NLL), it will fire directly
aimed shots without prior notice.
|
| May 8 | - The ROK
government expresses regret for the North’s threat and
announces its position that it would sternly deal with the
North’s provocations (Ministry of National Defense).
|
| May 8 |
- The South’s preparatory committee for joint national
events to mark the 70th anniversary of national liberation
holds a press conference and announces that South and North
Korea have agreed to hold joint events for the June 15 Joint
Declaration and the National Liberation Day and that the
June 15 event would be held in Seoul.
|
| May 8 | - A spokesperson
for North Korea’s National Aerospace Development
Administration (NADA), in a statement, stresses Kim
Jong-un’s “will to launch a satellite.”
|
| May 9 | - North Korea
sends a message threatening the South in the name of the
Southwest Frontline Military Command.
|
| May 9 | - North Korea
reports that it successfully fired a ballistic missile from
a strategic submarine (According to KCNA).
|
| May 12 | - The ROK
President confirms the government’s position at a meeting
with top foreign affairs and national security officials
that it will △ sternly deal with the North’s provocations
and threats (the threat of a directly aimed strike on the
Northern Limit Line and the test of a submarine-launched
ballistic missile (SLBM) and that △ the GIC issues should be
addressed through agreements between both authorities.
|
| May 13 | - A spokesperson for the Guidance Bureau
for the Development of the Central Special Economic Zone, in
a statement, claims that the GIC wage issue is tantamount to
infringing upon its sovereignty, threatening to withdraw
workers.
|
| May 13 | - North Korea carries out a shooting
exercise in Baekryeong and Yeonpyeong Island (May 13 -
15).
|
| May 13 | - The National Intelligence Service makes
it public that Hyun Yong-chul, Head of the Department of the
People’s Armed Forces, was executed for treason
(Intelligence Committee).
|
| May 14 | - The ROK
President, at a meeting with the representatives of the five
Northern Korean Provinces, says that it is regrettable that
the North increases military tension, resists the demand for
human rights improvement, and rejects the South’s proposal
for dialogue, and she stresses that the government will
continue to patiently make efforts to open an era of
peaceful unification on the Korean Peninsula.
|
| May 14 |
- The ROK government points out the injustice of the
North’s attitude regarding the GIC issues and calls on the
North to respond to the dialogue between both authorities as
soon as possible (the government’s position regarding the
statement by the spokesperson for the Guidance Bureau for
the Development of the Central Special Economic Zone).
|
| May 14 | - The South’s preparatory committee for
joint national events to mark the 15th anniversary of the
June 15 Joint Declaration proposes a working-level
consultation in Gaeseong from May 19 to May 20 to have
further discussions on the June 15 joint event.
|
| May 15 | - A
spokesperson for the North Side Committee for Implementing
the June 15 Joint Declaration, in a statement, claims that
the results of contacts for the June 15 event were
distorted.
|
| May 15 |
- The ROK government proposes to hold
the 6th Joint Management Committee meeting via the
Secretariat of the Joint Management Committee of the GIC,
but the North refuses to receive the message.
|
| May 18 | - A
spokesperson for the North Korean General Federation of
Labor Unions, in a statement, makes mudslinging accusations
against the ROK President regarding her comments on the
North Korean regime.
|
| May
19 | - The ROK President points
out the North’s SLBM test and reign of terror at the Asia
Leadership Conference and confirms the government’s position
that it will sternly deal with the North’s provocations
according to consistent principles and continue to exert
efforts to help the North move toward the path of normal
development through exchanges and cooperation with the South
and the international community.
|
| May 20 | - North Korea calls
off U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to the GIC
scheduled on May 21st.
|
| May
20 | - A spokesperson for the
Policy Department of the National Defense Commission, in a
statement, criticizes that the U.N. Security Council is an
organization that follows the U.S.’s arbitrary decisions
while threatening a miniaturized, diversified means of
nuclear strikes, more precise long-range missile, and the
success of its SLBM test.
|
| May 20 | - Regarding the
statement by the spokesperson for the Policy Department of
the National Defense Commission, the ROK government calls on
the North to immediately stop all threats and provocative
acts including the development of ballistic missile
technology (in a briefing by a spokesperson for the Ministry
of National Defense).
|
| May
20 | - The ROK President expresses
regret over the withdrawal of Secretary General Ban’s visit
to the North at a meeting with the U.N. Secretary
General.
|
| May 20 | - The North’s Foreign Ministry
spokesperson, in a statement, criticizes U.S. Secretary of
State Kerry for making comments on his visit to the South
and threatens that if the U.S. increases its pressure on the
North, the North has the capability and means to press the
U.S. administration.
|
| May
21 | - A spokesperson for the
Central Committee of the DPRK Red Cross Society, in a
statement, criticizes the ROK President for making comments
calling for the resumption of the reunion of separated
families.
|
| May 22 | - The ROK government strongly condemns the
North’s repeated slandering and mudslinging of the President
and calls on the North to immediately stop all such remarks
and respond to the South’s proposal for dialogue (in a
commentary by the Unification Ministry spokesperson).
|
| May 22 | - Regarding the statement by the
spokesperson for the DPRK Red Cross Society, the ROK
government expresses regret that the North connects the
separated family issue, a humanitarian issue, to political
and military issues and calls for an end to such tactics (in
a briefing by the Unification Ministry spokesperson).
|
| May 22 | - South and North Korea agree on the
“confirmation document” (signed by the Management Committee
and representatives of companies operating factories in the
GIC and business offices) regarding the GIC wages.
|
| May 22 | - The ROK government has a
government-ruling party consultation regarding the current
issues related to inter-Korean relations and stresses its
position that it will continue the dialogue while pointing
out the wrongdoings of the North.
|
| May 24 | - The Policy
Department of the National Defense Commission, in a
statement, demands the lifting of the May 24 Measures before
beginning a joint investigation and the dialogue between the
South and the North while denying the North’s involvement in
the sinking of the Cheonan.
|
| May 24 | - A spokesperson
for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the
Fatherland, in a statement, claims that self-defensive
nuclear armament is a just means to protect the dignity and
sovereignty of the nation while criticizing the South for
increasing tensions.
|
| May
24 | - The delegation of Women
Cross DMZ enters the South from the North by land using the
Gyeongui Line.
|
| May 26 |
- The ROK President says at a
cabinet meeting that Korea is facing difficulties and
challenges at home and abroad such as the North Korean
people’s lives falling apart due to the North’s SLBM test
and reign of terror.
|
| May
26 | - Regarding holding the June
15 South-North joint event at the private level, the South’s
preparatory committee for joint national events to mark the
15th anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration and the
70th anniversary of national liberation makes a proposal
again to have contact at a time and place that is convenient
for the North.
|
| May 27 |
- The ROK, the U.S., and Japan hold
a meeting of chief delegates for the Six-Party Talks,
discuss the North Korean nuclear issue, and stress that they
will closely cooperate with each other to respond to the
North’s nuclear threats.
|
| May
27 | - North Korea’s National
Reunification Institute’s white paper makes personal attacks
against the ROK President with low expressions.
|
| May 28 | - The ROK
government expresses regret that the North habitually makes
slanderous and mudslinging accusations against the South’s
head of state and denounces the North.
|
| May 29 | - The
Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification
of the Fatherland threatens that it will mercilessly punish
the South by considering the establishment of a U.N. human
rights office to monitor the North’s human rights situation
in Seoul as a “declaration of confrontation.”
|
| May 29 |
- Regarding the report on “A Russian Submarine Collides
with a North Korean Ship and Patrol Boat,” a spokesperson
for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the
Fatherland, in a statement, threatens that “There was no
collision incident. The South shall not escape retaliation
and punishment.”
|
| May 31 |
- The North’s Foreign Ministry
spokesperson, in a statement, argues that the U.S. is the
one who ruined Pyongyang-Washington relations and
denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, saying that “The
U.S. distorted the facts as if the U.S. wants the dialogue
but the North refuses to talk.”
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