| June
1 | - The North’s preparatory
committee for the joint events to mark the 15th anniversary
of the June 15 Joint Declaration and the 70th anniversary of
national liberation sends a letter to the Republic of Korea
stating that both sides should separately hold the June 15
event in each region.
|
| June
1 | - The Association of
Inter-Korean Historians conducts a survey for the joint
excavation of an ancient royal palace site, or Manwoldae, in
Gaeseong (from June 1 to November 30) ”
|
| June 2 | - North
Korea requests that the South support thermal cameras to
check whether people who access the Gaeseong Industrial
Complex (GIC) are infected with the MERS virus.
|
| June 3 |
- The ROK President visits the Defense Systems Test Center
of the Agency for Defense Development and emphasizes that we
can lead the North to the dialogue table and bring
substantive change only when we have the capability to
maintain a watertight security posture and substantial
deterrence.
|
| June 3 |
- A spokesperson for the National
Defense Commission of North Korea, in a statement, blames
the USFK for bringing an anthrax sample into the South and
instigates an anti-U.S. fight.
|
| June 3 | - A spokesperson
for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the
Fatherland, in a statement, denounces the ROK government’s
proposal for dialogue, calling it a “political fraud and a
deception of the public” and urges the South to “implement
the joint declarations and stop war drills to invade the
North” should it want to hold a dialogue.
|
| June 4 | - The ROK
government clarifies its position that it respects all
agreements between the South and the North and both sides
should discuss specific plans to fulfill them through
dialogue, while also urging the North to stop its irrational
arguments and respond to the South’s proposal for
dialogue.
|
| June 4 | - A spokesperson for the Korean People’s
Army Strategic Rocket Forces, in a statement, criticizes the
ROK President with low expressions regarding the
South’s test-fire of ballistic missiles.
|
| June 5 | - A
spokesperson for the North Side Committee for Implementing
the June 15 Joint Declaration shifts the responsibility for
cancelling the June 15 joint event to the South.
|
| June 5 |
- The ROK government supports the quarantine equipment
(three thermal cameras) requested by the North regarding the
GIC
|
| June 6 | - The ROK President stresses in her
Memorial Day Speech that achieving peaceful unification on
the Korean peninsula is the way to overcome difficult
issues, including the North Korean nuclear threat, and urges
the North to give up its nuclear program and come out to the
dialogue and cooperation table.
|
| June 7 | - A spokesperson
for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the
Fatherland, in a statement, condemns the contents of the ROK
President’s Memorial Day Speech as an expression of the ambition
for unification by absorbing the North and a grave
provocation.
|
| June 8 |
- The Unification Minister states in
his congratulatory speech for the seminar hosted by the
National Assembly and the Korean Peninsula Forum that the
South will carry on the spirit of mutual recognition and
achieving peace together that is specified in the July 4
Joint Declaration, the June 15 Joint Declaration, and the
October 4 Declaration
|
| June
11 | - A spokesperson for the
General Federation of Trade Unions of North Korea issues a
statement stating that raising the human rights issue of
North Korean workers dispatched abroad is an “unacceptable
challenge” and an “unbearable insult,” threatening that the
North “will destroy the puppet government’s anti-North
Korean scheme to slander the North’s human rights
situation.”
|
| June 12 |
- North Korea refuses to receive a
message from the ROK government which calls for the release
and repatriation of detained South Korean citizens.
|
| June 14 | - The ROK government calls on the North to
come out to the dialogue table between the authorities of
both sides should it have a sincere will to respect and
implement the June 15 Joint Declaration (in a briefing by
the spokesperson for the Ministry of Unification).
|
| June 14 | - North Korea fires three KN-01
short-range missiles into the East Sea.
|
| June 14 | - The
Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification
of the Fatherland condemns the ROK President by name
regarding the news report about the possibility of the
North’s involvement in “MERS emails that contain a malignant
code,” saying that this is a “heinous provocation against
the DPRK.”
|
| June 15 |
- The ROK government denounces the
North for criticizing the ROK government and the President
and belittling the efforts to overcome the situation
regarding MERS, and calls on it to stop the condemnation and
respond to dialogue.
|
| June
15 | - A North Korean soldier
crosses over the Military Demarcation Line (the
demilitarized zone in Hwacheon) and requests to defect to
South Korea.
|
| June 15 |
- In a government statement, North
Korea argues its position according to the “mandate” that ①
Inter-Korean relations and unification issues should be
addressed by the Korean nation’s own efforts; ② The South
should not seek a unification of systems; ③ The South should
halt military exercises to invade the North; ④ The North and
the South should stop provocative actions, creating an
atmosphere conducive to improving the South-North
relationship; and ⑤ Both sides should take practical actions
to implement the joint declarations between South and North
Korea.
|
| June 15 | - The ROK government urges the North to
stop actions escalating military tensions, come out to the
dialogue table between the authorities of both sides without
preconditions, and respond to exchanges in the private
sector (in a statement by the spokesperson for the Ministry
of Unification).
|
| June
17 | - North Korea returns two
South Korean citizens to the South via Panmunjeom.
|
| June 18 | - The ROK government repatriates one North
Korean ship and five crewmen (found drifting and rescued
near Ulleungdo Island on June 16).
|
| June 22 | - The 2015
Gwangju Summer Universiade Organizing Committee announces
that on June 19, the North notified it that it would not be
participating in the Games, citing the establishment of the
U.N. Human Rights Office to monitor the North Korean human
rights situation in Seoul, and the Committee expresses
regret that the North decided not to participate in the
Games for political reasons while calling for the North’s
participation.
|
| June 23 |
- The U.N. Human Rights Office to
monitor the North Korean human rights situation opens in
Seoul.
|
| June 23 | - North Korea sentences South Korean
citizens (Kim Kuk-gi and Choi Chun-gil) detained in the
North to “hard labor for life.”
|
| June 23 | - The ROK
government expresses strong regret that the North sentenced
South Korean citizens (Kim Kuk-gi and Choi Chun-gil) to hard
labor for life, and urges the North to release and
repatriate the South Korean citizens detained in the North,
including Kim Jeong-wook and Joo Won-moon, as soon as
possible (in a statement by the spokesperson for the
Ministry of Unification).
|
| June 23 | - The North’s
Foreign Ministry spokesperson, in a statement, claims that
the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Office to monitor the
North Korean human rights situation in Seoul is a political
provocation and a crime, and threatens a stern and
ultra-hardline response.
|
| June 24 | - The Committee
for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, in a
statement, states that “the opening of the U.N. Human Rights
Office to monitor the North Korean human rights situation in
Seoul will lead to the total collapse of inter-Korean
relations,” threatening that “the time for words is
over.”
|
| June 24 | - Minister of Unification, at a press
conference, expresses his willingness to support the North
regarding its drought damage, saying that “the South will
not wait for the North to change but make efforts to hold
inter-Korean talks with an open mind.”
|
| June 25 | - The
North’s National Defense Commission, in a statement,
declares that as “the U.S.’s plan for a second war on the
Korean Peninsula” has entered the stage of actual warfare,
its “anti-U.S. fight enters a new phase,” and demands that
“Washington should stop its hostile policy toward North
Korea.”
|
| June 25 | - The ROK government, at a meeting of the
Inter-Korean Exchanges and Cooperation Promotion Council,
deliberates and resolves a plan to support the Inter-Korean
Cooperation Fund worth a total of 8.478 billion won,
including the project to restore the South Korean section of
the Gyeongwon Line (3.306 billion won), a survey for the
joint excavation of an ancient royal palace site, or
Manwoldae, in Gaeseong (2.172 billion won), and a private
organization’s project to improve forests and the
environment of North Korea (3 billion won).
|
| June 26 | - The ROK
government designates a third-country citizen as the target
of financial sanctions regarding the arms trade with North
Korea.
|
| June 27 | - Regarding the ROK government’s financial
sanctions against the North, the Secretariat of the
Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland,
in a press release, blasts the South for “trying to
intentionally destroy inter-Korean relations” and threatens
a “stern punishment.”
|
| June
29 | - The ROK and the U.S., at a
meeting of chief delegates for the Six-Party Talks, discuss
various issues including the North Korean nuclear
issue.
|
| June 30 | - The Kim Dae-jung Peace Center consults
former First Lady Lee Hee-ho’s visit to the North
(Gaeseong).
|
| June 30 |
- Minister of Unification stresses at
the “Korea Global Forum 2015” that South and North Korea
need to cooperate to respond to natural disasters including
drought.
|
