Pyongyang denies removal of propaganda loudspeakers along border

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong is seen delivering a speech on Korean Central Television in this file photo taken on July 31 2023 — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong, speaks at an unidentified location in Pyongyang, in this grab from the state-run [North] Korean Central Television in July 2023.

SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - North Korea on Thursday reiterated that it has no intention of restoring ties with South Korea.

"We have clarified on several occasions that we have no will to improve relations with the [South]," said Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the isolated country's leader Kim Jong-un, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Her remarks came as she denied recent claims by South Korean military authorities that the North had begun dismantling some of its 40 propaganda loudspeakers along the border, in a reciprocal gesture to the South's conciliatory measures since President Lee Jae-myung took office in early June.

Kim accused Seoul of misleading the public, saying that North Korean soldiers "have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them."

Criticizing Seoul's efforts to engage with the North by removing a series of "hostile" measures implemented by the previous administration, she fumed, "Whether the [South] 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."

Im Yoon-seo lyseo0330@ajupress.com