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 “will not be prepared to take away them”, Kim Yo Jong mentioned in a press release revealed by state media KCNA on Thursday.
“We’ve clarified on a number of events that we’ve no will to enhance relations with [South Korea],” she mentioned, including that this stance “can be mounted 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 purple herring”.
Moreover propaganda messages, South Korea’s broadcasts typically blasted Ok-pop songs throughout the border. whereas North Korea performed unsettling noises reminiscent of howling animals.
South Korean residents residing close to the border had complained that their lives had been being disrupted been by the noise from each side, typically in the midst of the evening.
Pyongyang considers Seoul’s propaganda broadcasts an act of warfare and has threatened to explode the audio system prior to now.
South Korea’s speaker broadcasts resumed in June 2024 after a six yr pause beneath impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol who took a extra hardline stance in opposition to the North.
They had been restarted after Pyongyang started sending rubbish-filled balloons to the South in response to elevated tensions.
The connection appeared to have thawed beneath 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.
