North Korea stepped up its blustery rhetoric against South Korea on Friday, likening the South's point man on Pyongyang to a delusional literary character and warning him of "dreadful punishment."
The depiction of Unification Minister Hyun In-taek as Don Quixote by North Korea's cabinet newspaper, Minju Joson, came two days after the South Korean official announced a series of steps that he said would help quicken the reunification of the divided countries.
Hyun said South Korea will press North Korea harder in 2011 to open up to the outside world and drop its nuclear arms programs. He also said Seoul's inter-Korean policy will remain unchanged in essence, suggesting South Korea will not make concessions until North Korea takes clear steps toward denuclearization.
"Insane Hyun In-taek will definitely receive dreadful punishment one day. Just watch," Minju Joson said in its last editorial of the year. "To be frank, Hyun has committed numerous unforgivable sins against the (Korean) nation for his Don Quixote-like behavior that defies norms."
Don Quixote is a delusional Spanish idealist depicted in Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century novel that satirizes unrealistic beliefs. North Korean media use a variety of similes and metaphors to fire up their rhetoric.
Exchanges between the Koreas have ground to a near halt since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak came to power in early 2008 with a pledge to stop unconditional aid to North Korea. The North has violently reacted, sending the cross-border ties plunging to the lowest point in years. On Nov. 23, the communist country bombarded a South Korean border island, killing four people.
The Minju Joson editorial, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said the South "deliberately provoked the armed clash" and accused Seoul of trying to achieve unification by force.
South Korea denies it has the intention of absorbing North Korea or triggering a regime collapse even though it has taken measures that would better prepare it for contingencies in the North.
The two Koreas remain divided by a heavily fortified border after the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.