Kim Yo Jong, a senior Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) official, rejected what Yoon Suk-yeol, president of Republic of Korea (ROK), described as an "audacious initiative" on Thursday, according to Korean Central News Agency.

Kim, the vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said the plan was "absurd" and the DPRK would never use nuclear weapons to barter over "economic cooperation."

"I'm not sure that he knows his assumption 'if the north took a measure for denuclearization' was a wrong prerequisite," she said.

In his celebratory address for the ROK's 77th National Liberation Day on Monday, Yoon proposed an "audacious initiative" to Pyongyang that included large-scale food supplies and social infrastructure support, contingent on the DPRK halting its nuclear development and pursuing practical denuclearization.

Yoon also called for improvements to a "ROK grain-DPRK mineral resources" barter project prior to agreement on a nuclear deal with the DPRK.

(Cover: Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. /Reuters)