Anchor: President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed to respond strongly to North Korea’s provocations after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called to completely occupy the South in case of a war.
Max Lee reports.
 
Report: President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday vowed to punish North Korea with measures severalfold stronger in the event that the regime carries out a provocation against the South.
 
[Sound bite: President Yoon Suk Yeol (Korean-English)]
“If North Korea conducts a provocation, we will punish them with measures severalfold stronger. The traditional fake peace tactics that threaten [South Korea] with a choice between war and peace will not work.” 
 
The comments came as Yoon presided over a Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Office in Yongsan on Tuesday where he noted that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed not to recognize the Northern Limit Line, in which the regime carried out a "political provocation" meant to divide South Korea and make the citizens anxious.
 
President Yoon also made it clear that the current administration is different from any previous governments, referencing the overwhelming response capabilities of the military.
 
The South Korean leader called on the country and the government to unite as one to “defeat” the deceptive tactics and propaganda of the regime.
 
[Sound bite: President Yoon Suk Yeol (Korean-English)] 
“The North Korean authorities defined inter-Korean relations as a hostile relationship between two countries, not a kinship relationship. This is an admission that the North Korean government itself is an anti-national and anti-historical group.”
 
However, Yoon made it clear that it’s the North Korean government that poses a threat to the Korean Peninsula and not the North Korean people, calling on the unification ministry to designate an official day for North Korean defectors.
 
Yoon’s comments come amid flaring tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with North Korea firing artillery near the western sea border in recent weeks and launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile(IRBM) on Sunday in its first ballistic test of the year.
 
Max Lee, KBS World Radio News.