North Korea Media Mocks Pence For Not Interacting With Delegation

North Korea's media is mocking Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to either meet or interact with their country's delegation at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

"How could he possibly face our cheerful delegation," an individual contributor to the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, wrote, according to South Korea's Yonhap News agency. "[Pence] didn't dare look at our high-level delegation."

Pence and his wife, Karen, sat in the next box over from the North Korean delegation during the opening ceremonies last week, with the Pences sitting a few rows and feet down from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong.

However, the Pences did not acknowledge the delegation sitting next to them, reports The Washington Examiner, and people noticed that on social media.

Pence acknowledged on Wednesday that he chose to ignore the North Korean leader's sister, but that he did not avoid her.

"I didn't avoid the dictator's sister, but I did ignore her," Pence commented during an Axios event. "I didn't believe it was proper for the United States of America to give any countenance or attention in that forum to someone who's not merely the sister of the dictator, but is the leader of the propaganda effort."

Meanwhile, the North Korean column also threatened to punish the United States after Pence visited the memorial of the South Korean Navy ship Cheonan, which North Korea torpedoed in 2010, and for his meetings with defectors from North Korea.

Pence also avoided meeting with North Korean titular head of state Kim Young Nam during a reception held by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, notes the North Korean publication. Instead, he came to the reception late, stayed just a few minutes, and had dinner with U.S. Olympics athletes.

The vice president and his wife went to South Korea on Feb. 8, accompanied by the father of Otto Warmbier, the detained college student who died in the United States after North Korea returned him while he was in a coma.

Meanwhile, the North Korean paper said that the country is "not thirsty" for talks with the United States.

"To say the obvious, we, who have done everything that needs to be done and own everything, are not thirsty for dialogue with the U.S.," the column said. "It is the U.S who will feel anxious as time goes by," read a commentary by an individual contributor to the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party."

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