North Korean chief Kim Jong Un’s sister has rebutted South Korea’s claims that Pyongyang eliminated a few of its propaganda-blasting loudspeakers alongside the border.
North Korea has “by no means eliminated” the audio system and “are usually not prepared to take away them”, Kim Yo Jong mentioned in a press release printed by state media KCNA on Thursday.
“Now we have clarified on a number of events that we have now no will to enhance relations with [South Korea],” she mentioned, including that this stance “might be fastened in our structure sooner or later”.
South Korea’s army mentioned earlier this week that North Korea had eliminated a few of its loudspeakers alongside the border – days after South Korea dismantled a few of its personal.
Kim, the deputy director of North Korea’s propaganda division, mentioned Seoul’s declare was an “unfounded unilateral supposition and a pink herring”.
Apart from propaganda messages, South Korea’s broadcasts typically blasted Okay-pop songs throughout the border. whereas North Korea performed unsettling noises corresponding to howling animals.
South Korean residents dwelling close to the border had complained that their lives have been being disrupted been by the noise from each side, generally in the midst of the evening.
Pyongyang considers Seoul’s propaganda broadcasts an act of conflict and has threatened to explode the audio system up to now.
South Korea’s speaker broadcasts resumed in June 2024 after a six 12 months pause below impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol who took a extra hardline stance in opposition to the North.
They have been restarted after Pyongyang started sending rubbish-filled balloons to the South in response to elevated tensions.
The connection appeared to have thawed below new President Lee Jae Myung, who campaigned on bettering inter-Korean ties.
South Korea halted its broadcasts alongside the demilitarised zone shortly after Lee took workplace in June, in what the nation’s army described as a bid to “restore belief” and “obtain peace on the Korean Peninsula”.
Nonetheless, ties between the 2 neighbours stay uneasy. Earlier this week, North Korea warned of “resolute counteraction” to provocations forward of joint army drills between South Korea and the US.