N. Korea: No engagement with South

Kim Jong Il's final farewell

• Pyongyang complains Seoul has refused to let citizens pay respects to Kim Jong Il
• The North says it won't engage with the current South Korean government
• The comments come after two days of ceremonies to honor Kim Jong Il, who died this month
• The late dictator's son Kim Jong Un is being portrayed as the new 'supreme leader'

(CNN) -- North Korea said Friday that it remained steadfast in its refusal to engage with the current South Korean government, dismissing the prospect of a shift in relations with Seoul after a dynastic succession in Pyongyang.

"We solemnly declare with confidence that the South Korean puppets and foolish politicians around the world should not expect any change" from North Korea, the country's National Defense Commission said in a statement reported by Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The statement came after two days of elaborate ceremonies in Pyongyang that honored Kim Jong Il, who died earlier this month, and underlined the rise of his son and chosen successor, Kim Jong Un, to the position of "supreme leader" of the secretive state.

The nuclear-armed North "will have no dealings with the Lee Myung-bak group of traitors forever," the statement said in an English-language version of the KCNA report. Lee is the South Korean president.

The North criticized the South Korean government's decision to allow only a select group of private citizens to visit Pyongyang to pay their respects to Kim Jong Il.

Lee's government's "show of enmity" toward North Korea "culminated in its act of blocking south Koreans who wanted to visit Pyongyang to mourn the demise of leader Kim Jong Il," the statement said.

Seoul allowed a group of South Koreans, including a former first lady and a leading businesswoman, to travel to the North earlier this week to express condolences over Kim Jong Il's death, which was announced last week.

North Korea's future post-Kim Jong Il

That move, along with a number of other gestures like expressing condolences to the North Korean people, suggested a slight softening in Lee's government's hardline stance toward Pyongyang.

The North, though, did not appear to be impressed by those efforts, expressing anger Friday that more South Koreans weren't permitted to visit Pyongyang and that groups were allowed this week to release leaflets near the border criticizing North Korean leaders.

It also said that the South's decision to put its military on alert after Kim Jong Il's death created "a war-like atmosphere on the ground and in the seas and air."

In one of the more vehement passages of saber-rattling rhetoric, the defense commission warned of revenge over these perceived misdeeds.

"The veritable sea of tears shed by the army and people" of North Korea "will turn into that of retaliatory fire to burn all the group of traitors to the last one and their wailing into a roar of revenge to smash the stronghold of the puppet forces," the statement said.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~3/Wl11mFPhVlg/index.html

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