North Korea rejected the conciliatory approach taken by the new South Korean government of President Lee Jae Myung as a “pipe dream,” on Thursday, denying Seoul’s claim that Pyongyang has removed loudspeakers for blasting noise along the border in response to a similar move by the South.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a senior ruling party official, stated, “We have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them,” adding Seoul is “misleading the public opinion,” reports KCNA.
Soon after his inauguration in June, Lee ordered the South Korean military to stop propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along the border with North Korea in an effort to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Last week, Seoul said it has begun dismantling the loudspeakers, says Kyodo News.
The broadcasts had been resumed after a six-year hiatus under Lee’s predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, who adopted a firm stance on Pyongyang.
“Whether the ROK withdraws its loudspeakers or not, stops broadcasting or not, postpones its military exercises or not and downscales them or not, we do not care about them and are not interested in them,” Kim Yo Jong said.
Kim said large-scale US-South Korea joint military drills scheduled to start next Monday will “undoubtedly bring the light to the hostile nature” of Seoul.
She also stressed that Pyongyang has “no will to improve relations” with South Korea, calling it “the US faithful servant and ally,” and said, “This conclusive stand and viewpoint will be fixed in our constitution in the future.”
She also dismissed South Korean media speculation that North Korea may try to send its message to the United States via Russia during talks between US President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, claiming they have nothing to do with the US.
In late July, North Korea said the United States must recognise it as a nuclear weapons state if bilateral talks are to resume.
Kim Yo Jong had also released statements in July dismissing Washington and Seoul’s stated desires to restart diplomacy aimed at defusing the North’s nuclear program, which derailed in 2019 following a collapsed summit between her brother and Trump during his first term, reports AP.
North Korea and Russia have been strengthening military cooperation since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Putin and Kim Jong Un reaffirmed their mutual support of each other on Wednesday.
The upcoming Trump-Putin summit will be held to discuss how to end the Ukraine war.