North Korea’s official Twitter account appeared to have been hacked today, which is believed to be the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il’s youngest son and heir-apparent, Kim Jong Un.
Four messages critical of the Kims remained posted in the account for 10 hours.
“Let’s make a new world by removing our people’s sworn enemy - traitor Kim Jong Il and his son Kim Jong Un!” one message read.
Another urged the North’s military to “point the gun” at Kim Jong Il for diverting money to the country’s missile and nuclear programmes.
North Korea opened the Twitter account in August as part of an apparent attempt to bolster its propaganda warfare against South Korea and the United States.
The account “uriminzok”, which means “our nation” in Korean, has so far gained 10,870 followers, with more than 1,300 tweets praising Kim Jong Il and carrying North Korean official media reports.
Meanwhile, North Korea today reiterated a proposal for unconditional talks with South Korea to ease tensions on the divided peninsula.
The latest offer comes days after South Korea dismissed earlier calls by the North for negotiations.
Tensions between the two sides escalated after a North Korean artillery barrage on a South Korean-held island near their disputed maritime border killed four people in November.
The attack - the first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War - occurred in waters not far from where a North Korean torpedo allegedly sank a South Korean warship eight months earlier. That attack killed 46 sailors. North Korea has denied responsibility.
“We do not want to see the present South Korean authorities pass the five-year term of their office idly without North-South dialogue,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“There is neither conditionality in the North’s proposal for dialogue nor need to cast any doubt about its real intention,” it said.
North Korea also proposed holding separate talks later this month or in early February on other issues, including resumption of a suspended joint tourism project and co-operation at an industrial complex in the border city of Kaesong.
The North also suggested restarting suspended Red Cross talks on humanitarian
issues.
North Korea said its offer was “a measure of good faith for opening the channel of dialogue and improving the North-South relations”.
“The South Korean authorities should discard any unnecessary misgiving, open their hearts and positively respond to the North’s proposal,” the statement said.
AP