SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday dismissed South Korean claims that the North is removing some of its loudspeakers along the inter-Korean border, mocking the government in Seoul for clinging to hopes of renewed diplomacy between the war-divided rivals.
Kim Yo Jong’s statement came after South Korea’s military said Saturday it had detected the North removing some of its loudspeakers, days after the South dismantled its own front-line speakers used for anti-North propaganda broadcasts in a bid to ease tensions.
Kim reiterated previous North Korean statements that it has no immediate interest in reviving long-stalled negotiations with Washington and Seoul and cited an upcoming joint military exercise between the allies as proof of their continued hostility toward Pyongyang.
While saying that North Korea was removing some of its speakers, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t disclose the sites where it spotted such activity and said it wasn’t immediately clear whether the North would take all of them down.
During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, South Korea’s new liberal President Lee Jae Myung described the North’s alleged steps as a “reciprocal measure” to South Korea’s speaker removals and expressed hope that the Koreas could “gradually reopen dialogue and communication.”
Kim accused Lee’s government of misleading the public, saying that the North Koreans “have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them.”
In recent months, South Korean border residents have complained that North Korean speakers blasted irritating sounds, including howling animals and pounding gongs, in a tit-for-tat response to South Korean propaganda broadcasts.
The South Korean military said the North stopped its broadcasts in June after Lee ordered to halt South’s broadcasts in his government’s first concrete step toward easing tensions between the war-divided rivals. South Korea’s military began removing its speakers from border areas last week but didn’t specify how they would be stored or whether they could be quickly redeployed if tensions flared again.
