South Korean humanitarian assistance to North Korea is a “non-essential and secondary issue" in improving DPRK-ROK relations, the country's external-oriented DPRK Today reported on Monday, instead calling on Seoul and Pyongyang to resolve their “fundamental problems” as agreed to in last year's joint declarations.

In an article written by an unnamed reporter, the DPRK Today condemned Seoul for “not actively taking the lead in the improvement of the relationship while walking on eggshells around the foreign power coercing the ‘adjustment of speed’ in inter-Korean relations.”