SEOUL — The first summit between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and President Trump was a picture of easy chumminess.
On Monday, the two leaders bonded over the fact that they both have survived assassination attempts, and they talked golf. When Trump admired the handcrafted wooden fountain pen Lee used to sign the White House guest book, saying “it’s a nice pen, you want to take it with you?” Lee offered it as an impromptu gift. At a Q&A in front of reporters, Lee thanked Trump for bringing peace to the Korean peninsula through his previous summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and urged him to meet with Kim again.
“If you become the peacemaker, then I will assist you by being a pacemaker,” Lee told Trump, drawing a chuckle.
These scenes, along with the two-hour closed door meeting between the two leaders that followed, seemed to put to rest fears that Lee — a former governor and legislator with little prior experience on the international stage — might be subject to a “Zelensky moment”: cornered and berated by a counterpart who has long complained that Seoul takes Washington for granted.
Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, holds a trade letter sent by the White House to South Korea during a news conference. On July 30, the U.S. struck a trade deal with South Korea, but details have been scant.
(Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It was an outcome for which South Korea painstakingly prepared.
As a presidential candidate earlier this year, Lee had vowed he would bring home a diplomatic win at all costs, even if it meant he had to “crawl between Trump’s legs.” To smooth along trade negotiations with the U.S. in late July, South Korean officials brought with them red caps emblazoned with the slogan: “MAKE AMERICA SHIPBUILDING GREAT AGAIN.” And ahead of Monday’s summit, Lee compared notes with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, whom he met last week, and brushed up on his assignment by reading “Trump: The Art of the Deal.”
Those early efforts so far have seemingly paid off. Key South Korean proposals, such as a $150-billion plan to help revitalize the U.S. shipbuilding industry, have been received favorably, helping secure the trade deal with Washington last month, according to South Korean officials.
“We’re going to be buying ships from South Korea,” Trump said on Monday. “But we’re also going to have them make ships here with our people.”
But despite what is widely viewed as a positive first step for Lee — establishing face-to-face chemistry with a figure known for both unpredictable swings and a deeply personal style of diplomacy — analysts say it is too early to call it a win. Several unresolved issues still loom large, and these may yet be snarled in the details as working-level negotiations play out.
“I actually thought they could get along surprisingly well because both Lee and Trump aren’t ideologically motivated in their thinking and practice of foreign policy,” said James Park, an East Asia expert at the Quincy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
“But it remains to be seen how their relationship unfolds. Should strong tensions emerge on trade and security issues that both sides find it difficult to compromise on in the future, the relationship between Lee and Trump will be tested. There’s a case in point — how the friendship between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fractured in recent months over tariffs and India’s purchases of Russian weapons.“
Although Trump promised on Monday to honor last month’s trade agreement — which lowered the tariff rate on Seoul to 15% from 25% — details have been scant and the deal has yet to be formalized in writing. But both sides have touted it as a win, leaving room to reignite long-running disagreements over issues like U.S. rice and beef, which have been subject to import restrictions in South Korea.
As part of that deal, South Korea also pledged to invest $350 billion into key U.S. industries. But behind the scenes, officials from both countries reportedly continue to disagree how this fund will be structured or used, with U.S. officials seeking far more discretionary power than the South Korean side is willing to give.
U.S. Army soldiers attend a transfer of authority ceremony in South Korea. In the past, President Trump has said that South Korea should pay $10 billion a year to help keep the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country.
(SOPA Images / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The summit hasn’t fully quelled South Korean concerns over defense and military cooperation either.
In the past, Trump has said that South Korea should pay $10 billion a year to help keep the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country. That is around nine times what Seoul currently pays under an existing agreement between the two countries.
While South Korean officials said that the defense cost-sharing issue was not discussed during Monday’s summit, Park says that the issue may resurface down the line.
“The alliance cost-sharing issue has been a consistent interest of Trump’s over the years,” he said.
Trump’s grievances over the cost of stationing the U.S. military in South Korea has fueled concerns that the U.S. will pull out troops from its bases here to counter China, making the country more vulnerable to North Korea’s military threats.
The scenario has gained plausibility in recent months, following reports earlier this year that U.S. defense officials were reviewing a plan to relocate thousands of U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea to other locations in the Indo-Pacific, such as Guam.
While any reduction of troop size has long been a political anathema in South Korea, Lee Ho-ryung, a senior research fellow at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), says that this may be less of a sticking point for President Lee than history might suggest, citing a speech the South Korean leader delivered shortly after the summit in which he pledged to increase Seoul’s own defense spending.
“The content of that speech and Q&A suggest that the two sides have somewhat aligned on these issues,” she said. “But it will still need to be further discussed at the working level.”
When asked by a reporter on Monday whether he was considering reducing the number of U.S. troops in South Korea, Trump deflected by saying “I don’t want to say that now because we’ve been friends.”
But then he pivoted to another suggestion that raised eyebrows in South Korea.
“Maybe one of the things I’d like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land where we have the big fort,” he said. “I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease.”
Under an existing arrangement known as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), South Korea currently grants the U.S. military rent-free use of the land where its bases are located. Speaking to legislators on Tuesday, South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back summarily dismissed the suggestion, hinting that it may have been a negotiating tactic.
“It is impossible in the real world,” he said. “But from the perspective of President Trump, I think it may have been a comment intended to allow him to make a different strategic demand.”
In the meantime, a second round of negotiations with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un would be a win for both leaders.
But many experts believe that the window for getting North Korea to denuclearize under the previously discussed terms — partial sanctions relief — has closed since the failed summits between Trump and Kim in 2018 and 2019. North Korea recently dismissed any attempts to convince it to give up its nuclear weapons as a “mockery of the other party.”
Personal chemistry between President Lee and Trump can go only so far this time, says Lee of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
“North Korea is effectively evading any economic sanctions through Russia and China,” she said. “Sanctions relief is no longer the enticing carrot that it once was.”
China will hold a large-scale “Victory Day” parade on September 3rd, an annual parade marking Japan’s surrender in 1945 and the end of World War 2. The parade is concurrent with a broader rivalry between China and the West, with Beijing strengthening its ties to nations under heavy Western sanctions. Analysts describe the alignment as an “Axis of Upheaval”, a loose coalition of states discouraged by the long-standing Western world order.
What Happened?
Chinese President Xi Jinping will host Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Mlaing in Beijing on September 3rd.
It will mark the first joint public appearance of Xi, Putin, and Kim.
In total, 26 foreign leaders will attend, essentially no Western heads of state will be in attendance. The only exceptions being; Slovakia’s Robert Fico and Serbia’s Aleksander Vucic, both of whom have maintained alignment with the Beijing/Moscow sphere of influence.
Tens of thousands of Chinese troops will march in the parade, doubling as an international show of strength in addition to celebration of a historical occasion.
Why it Matters:
The parade highlights China’s role as a diplomatic hub for sanctioned and otherwise isolated leaders, further enforcing Beijing’s willingness to spearhead an alternative power bloc to the West. By unifying Putin, Kim and others, Xi emphasizes global leadership stature while reinforcing alliances that bypass Western sanctions. The gathering also underscores the immense economic leverage of China, from buying 90% of Iran’s oil exports to sourcing strategic rare earth minerals from Myanmar.
Stakeholder Reactions:
Analysts: Note that the “Axis of Upheaval” provides critical, mutual lifelines to resist sanctions, whether by supplying energy, blocking trade routes, or reinforcing each other diplomatically.
Western observers: Concerned that the absence of major Western leaders contrasts sharply with the presence of sanctioned figures, signaling a deepening divide in global alignments.
Alfred Wu, NUS Singapore: Asserts that XI is projecting strength, showing that leaders he once admired now stand beside him, and in some senses now look to him, symbolizing his rise as a global leader.
What’s Next?
The parade is likely to amplify rhetoric about resisting Western dominance and provide new opportunities for side meetings between sanctioned leaders. As China balances this coalition with its own global economic interests, that still undoubtedly relies on some level of cooperation with the West despite growing tensions. Said growing tensions stemming over energy security, Taiwan and sanctions enforcement are likely to intensify over the years. The event will serve as a visual reminder of shifting alliances and who stands on each side of the contemporary multipolar world order.
In White House meeting with Lee, Trump also says US should have ownership of land housing US military base in South Korea.
United States President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung have expressed their willingness to engage with North Korea’s hereditary leader, Kim Jong Un, during a meeting at the White House.
Lee, who has promised to “heal the wounds of division and war” as South Korea’s new president, told the US leader on Monday that his North Korean counterpart “will be waiting” to meet him.
“I hope you can bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, the only divided nation in the world, so that you can meet with Kim Jong Un”, and “build a Trump Tower in North Korea so that I can play golf there”, Lee said, speaking in Korean.
Trump, who has met with Kim on three past occasions, told reporters in the Oval Office that he hopes to meet the North Korean leader again this year.
“Someday, I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump said, adding that he knew Kim “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister”.
During his meeting with the South Korean president, Trump also said the US should have ownership of South Korean land where some 28,500 American troops are stationed in US military bases.
“We spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base,” Trump said.
This was Lee’s first visit to the White House after he was elected in June following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who briefly imposed martial law late last year in a move swiftly overturned by lawmakers and which has led to his arrest on alleged insurrection charges.
Since taking office, Lee has publicly made efforts to improve South Korea’s relationship with its northern neighbour. But Pyongyang has so far rebuffed the diplomatic overtures.
Last week, Lee said he would seek to restore the so-called September 19 Military Agreement, signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, suspending military activity along South Korea’s border with North Korea as part of an effort to rebuild trust.
Lee’s announcement was met with criticism from North Korea, which noted that it came as South Korea embarked on joint military drills with the United States.
North Korean state media said that the drills proved Washington’s intention to “occupy” the entire Korean Peninsula .
“If they continuously persist in the military rehearsal, they will certainly face up the unpleasant situation and pay a dear price,” Kim Yong Bok, first vice-chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, was cited by North Korean state media KCNA as saying.
‘A raid on churches’
Hours before Lee arrived at the White House, Trump took to social media to denounce what he described as “a Purge or Revolution” in South Korea. “WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Asked about his post during his meeting with Lee, Trump said, “I am sure it’s a misunderstanding, but there’s a rumour going around about raiding churches … I did hear that from intel.”
Last month, South Korean Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki’s team raided Unification Church facilities and officials linked with the religious sect, while “investigating various allegations involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee”, South Korea’s official Yonhap News Agency said.
Seoul police also raided Sarang Jeil Church, headed by evangelical preacher Jun Kwang-hoon, who led protests in support of the removed President Yoon.
The police have also investigated pro-Yoon activists who stormed a court in late January after it extended Yoon’s detention, and in July, special prosecutors investigating the declaration of martial law served a search warrant on the Korean part of a military base jointly operated with the US.
This holiday was established in 2013 to mark Kim Jong-il’s inspection visit to the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Armored Division of the Korean People’s Army on this day in 1960.
This tank division was part of the main advance from Seoul to Taejon (Daejeon) during the Korean War, and the leaders visit to the unit is regarded as the start of the Songun revolutionary leadership by the North Korea government.
The Songun (meaning ‘military-first’. ‘Son’ meaning ‘First’ and ‘Gun’ meaning ‘Military’.), or Songbun, system was devised by Kim Jong-il to assign a classification to every citizen based on the socioeconomic background at the time of liberation in 1945.
Under the system, Koreans were split into three broad classes:
Core: Includes professional revolutionaries, descendants of ‘war heroes’ who died working or fighting for the North, peasants or those from peasant families.
Wavering:Includes people who had previously lived in South Korea or China, those with relatives who went to the South, families of small-scale merchants, intellectuals, practitioners of superstition, etc.
Hostile:Includes descendants of landlords, capitalists, religious people, political prisoners, those who had assisted South Korean forces during the Korean War, or were otherwise judged anti-Party or associated with external powers.
Songun, officially ‘Songun Politics’, prioritises the military in all aspects of Korean society and has boosted the importance of the Korean People’s Army in politics, society and culture.
It may seem odd that a communist regime would stratify its citizens in such a way, but it was used as an effective means of isolating and controlling perceived internal political threats by giving key leadership roles to those who were part of families who had actively supported the revolution.
The Songbun system is not pushed as hard by the current regime, probably as several generations have diluted the value of this form of hereditary loyalty.
The Day of Songun is marked by mass dance, visits to historic sites and laying flowers at monuments dedicated to the leaders and the military.
A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un overseeing a strategic cruise missile launching drill in the West Sea of Korea at an undisclosed location in North Korea in February 2025. On Saturday, he oversaw the test-firing of two new missiles meant to protect against aerial threats. File Photo courtesy of KCNA/EPA-EFE
Aug. 24 (UPI) —North Korea has test-fired two missiles newly designed to protect against aerial attacks, overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, state media announced Sunday.
The supreme leader oversaw the missile tests along with multiple members of the Workers’ Party of Korea and military officials, the Korea Central News Agency reported. The outlet said the missiles have “superior combat capability” and a “fast response” to attacks from aerial targets such as drones and cruise missiles.
The testing came less than a week after Ulchi Freedom Shield 25, joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, ABC News reported. The annual training exercises began Monday and were expected to end Thursday.
The training was expected to include live-fly events with U.S. F-35A and F-35C Lightning II aircraft as well as space-related elements, the Defense Department said. The Pentagon said the exercises work to strengthen the agencies’ response capabilities.
“Ulchi Freedom Shield 25 underscores the continuing military partnership between the U.S. and South Korea and is implemented in the spirit of the Oct. 1, 1953, mutual defense treaty,” the Defense Department said in a post Thursday.
“It continues to reinforce the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security, reaffirming the ironclad commitment between the U.S. and South Korea to defend their homelands.”
Hours before North Korea’s missile test, U.N. Command confirmed the South Korean government fired warning shots at about 30 North Korean soldiers who crossed the Demilitarized Zone.
South Korean “forces issued several warning broadcasts in an attempt to notify the soldiers that they had crossed the [Military Demarcation Line], but they did not respond to the broadcasts,” a spokesperson for the U.N. Command’s Military Armistice Commission said in an email to Yonhap News Agency.
South Korean “forces then fired warning shots in a designated warning shot area to compel the [North Korean] soldiers to return to the north side” of the demarcation line.
Yonhap said the North Korean military has been working to fortify the border with South Korea since April 2024, adding barbed wire fences and anti-tank barriers near the Demilitarized Zone.
Report comes a day before US President Donald Trump’s summit with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae-myung, in Washington, DC.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the firing of two new air defence missiles, state media reported, announcing that the tests showed the weapons had “superior combat capability”.
The report on Sunday comes a day before United States President Donald Trump meets his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae-myung, in Washington, DC.
North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the tests, which took place on Saturday, showed that the missiles demonstrated a “fast response” to aerial targets such as attack drones and cruise missiles.
The report did not explain the new missiles in any detail, only that their “operation and reaction mode is based on unique and special technology”.
It also did not say where the test had been carried out.
The launches also come as South Korea and the US continue their annual joint military drills and as the South Korean military announced that it had fired warning shots at several North Korean soldiers who had briefly crossed their heavily militarised border on Tuesday.
The United Nations Command in South Korea put the number of North Korean troops that crossed the border at 30, the Yonhap news agency reported.
North Korean state media, meanwhile, quoted Army Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol as saying the incident was a “premeditated and deliberate provocation”.
“This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area, where a huge number of forces are stationing in confrontation with each other, to the uncontrollable phase,” Ko said.
Earlier this month, Kim condemned the US-South Korea joint military drills as their intent to remain “most hostile and confrontational” to his country, pledging to speed up nuclear build-up.
South Korea’s new leader, Lee, has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed neighbour, and has promised to build “military trust”, but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul.
Pyongyang claims South Korea’s army fired more than 10 warning shots from a machinegun towards North Korean troops.
North Korea has accused South Korean forces of firing warning shots earlier this week at its soldiers who were part of a border reinforcement project, warning Seoul that its actions risked raising tensions to “uncontrollable” levels.
In a report published on Saturday, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the North ‘s Korean People’s Army Vice Chief of the General Staff Ko Jong Chol as saying that the South should stop its “premeditated and deliberate” provocation, which he described as “inciting military conflict”.
Calling the incident a “serious provocation”, Ko said the South Korean military fired more than 10 warning shots towards North Korean troops.
“This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area, where a huge number of forces are stationing, in confrontation with each other, to the uncontrollable phase,” Ko said.
The incident took place on Tuesday as North Korean soldiers were working to permanently seal the heavily fortified border that divides the peninsula, state media outlet KCNA said, citing a statement from Ko.
South Korea did not immediately comment on the reported encounter, and the country’s official news agency, Yonhap, reported that it had no immediate confirmation from officials in Seoul on Pyongyang’s claim.
The reported firing of warning shots is only the latest confrontation between North and South Korean forces, which have been at odds for decades over the heavily guarded border that divides both nations.
The last border clash between the archrivals was in early April when South Korea’s military fired warning shots after a group of 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border.
Those troops were spotted in the Demilitarized Zone between the two countries, parts of which are heavily mined and overgrown.
In more recent months, South Korea has been taking steps to ease border tensions following the election of President Lee Jae-myung in June.
‘Corresponding countermeasure’
North Korea’s army announced last October that it was moving to totally shut off the southern border, saying it had sent a telephone message to United States forces based in South Korea to “prevent any misjudgement and accidental conflict”.
Ko, in the statement published by state media, warned that North Korea’s army would retaliate to any interference with its efforts to permanently seal the border.
“If the act of restraining or obstructing the project unrelated to the military character persists, our army will regard it as deliberate military provocation and take corresponding countermeasure,” he said.
Last year, North Korea sent thousands of rubbish-carrying balloons southwards, saying they were retaliation for anti-North Korean propaganda balloons sent by South Korean activists.
Later, Seoul turned on border loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in six years, which included K-pop tunes and international news. Pyongyang responded by blaring strange sounds along the frontier, unsettling South Korean residents.
Seoul has since turned off the loudspeaker broadcasts following orders from newly elected President Lee.
North Korea’s brand new luxury holiday resort has been opened – but the only tourists allowed to visit are Russian and one woman has shared her thoughts after staying at the complex
The North Korean resort can hold up to 20,000 guests(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A woman has shared her thoughts on North Korea’s ‘luxury’ beach resort that has been modelled off Benidorm.
The whopping Wonsan Kalma resort has capacity to hold around 20,000 guests, but all tourists except those from Russia have been banned from visiting. The new complex features a giant artificial white sand beach – once a missile test site – on the Sea of Japan, and was opened by Kim Jong Un himself.
However Russian guests who have visited have claimed the were ‘followed’ everywhere and believe there was a possibility their phones were bugged while visiting.
Russian blogger Daria Zubkova visited the resort as one of the first tourists and shared her thoughts on her visit to the secret holiday destination.
The veterinary assistant had travelled from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok in Russia and then to Pyongyang and revealed how she wasn’t left alone during her trip: “Even on the beach, there was someone walking with us, but it didn’t look like some kind of convoy, it looked more like sweet concern, they’re walking, they’ll chat with you, they’ll just walk behind you, that is, they’ll argue somehow that we’re worried about you getting lost or something.’
Yet apparently this is out of “concern” for guests rather than snooping and Daria said most people are afraid of “wiretapping everywhere”, but noted how she wasn’t afraid as she didn’t have anything to hide. However she managed to leave her room at 2am and walk along the beach alone and said there were “no problems”.
Daria said there was ‘cool infrastructure’ surrounding the resort(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The huge resort also features over 40 hotels, guesthouses, and leisure facilities and as for the cuisine, Daria revealed there was a selection of places to eat at the retreat and she was served a range of different dishes that they “adapted to our interests” and “always wanted to surprise us” including a wide selection of meat available.
Daria also noted how there was “very cool infrastructure” surrounding the hotel, and said there were new houses and new buildings all around with “good decoration”.
The basic cost of this tour for Russians is £1,360 – once they have made their way to Vladivostok. All but £325 of this has to be paid in cash.
Other tourists have also claimed they were told sending emails cost £1.65 each and the tour company made clear that the secret police would have the opportunity to monitor their messages – and they would be sent from the hotel’s email box rather than their own.
Kim Yo Jong (L), the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said South Korea would never be a diplomatic partner, stare media reported Wednesday. She is seen here in Tsiolkovsky, Russia, during a state visit in 2023. File Kremlin Pool Photo by Vladimir Smirnov/Sputnik/EPA
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un‘s influential sister repeated her dismissal of Seoul’s outreach efforts, state media reported Wednesday, saying that South Korea “cannot be a diplomatic partner.”
Kim Yo Jong “sharply criticized the essence of the deceptive ‘appeasement offensive'” by the administration of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
“We have witnessed and experienced the dirty political system of the ROK for decades,” Kim told North Korean Foreign Ministry officials during a meeting on Tuesday, using the official acronym for South Korea.
“The ambition for confrontation with the DPRK has been invariably pursued by the ROK, whether it held the signboard of ‘conservatism’ or wore a mask of ‘democracy,'” Kim said.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
Kim’s remarks come as the United States and South Korea are holding their annual summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise. The 11-day exercise began Monday and includes live field maneuvers, computer simulation-based command post exercises and related civil defense drills. Some 21,000 troops, including 18,000 South Korean personnel, are participating this year.
President Lee has stressed that the drills are defensive in nature and has made a series of overtures to North Korea since taking office in June in an effort to improve strained ties.
In a speech Friday marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee vowed to “respect” North Korea’s political system and said Seoul would not pursue “unification by absorption.”
“We have no intention of engaging in hostile acts,” Lee said. “Going forward, our government will take consistent measures to substantially reduce tensions and restore trust.”
Kim called Lee’s defensive characterization of the joint military exercise “gibberish” and said his administration’s “stinky confrontational nature is swathed in a wrapper of peace.”
“Lee Jae Myung is not the sort of man who will change the course of history,” she added.
The Blue House, South Korea’s presidential office, responded to Kim’s comments Monday, calling them “regrettable.”
“The Lee Jae Myung administration’s preemptive measures for peace on the Korean Peninsula are not self-serving or for the benefit of one side, but rather are for the stability and prosperity of both South and North Korea,” the office said in a statement. “It is regrettable that North Korean officials are misrepresenting and distorting our sincere efforts.”
Kim Yo Jong has made multiple public statements in recent weeks dismissing Seoul’s rapprochement efforts, which include removing its anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeakers from border areas inside the DMZ.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday said the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise demonstrated the allies’ “will to ignite a war” and called for the rapid expansion of Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities
Powerful sister of North Korea’s leader rejects peace overtures from South Korea, denouncing its continued military drills with the US.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister has again dismissed peace overtures from South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, declaring that Pyongyang will never see Seoul as a partner for diplomacy, according to state media.
The report by KCNA on Wednesday came as South Korea and its ally, the United States, continued their joint military drills, which includes testing an upgraded response to North Korea’s growing nuclear capabilities.
Kim Yo Jong, who is among her brother’s top foreign policy officials, denounced the exercises as a “reckless” invasion rehearsal, according to KCNA, and said that Lee had a “dual personality” by talking about wanting to pursue peace while continuing the war games.
She made the comments during a meeting on Tuesday with senior Foreign Ministry officials about her brother’s diplomatic strategies in the face of persistent threats from rivals and a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape, KCNA reported.
“The Republic of Korea [ROK], which is not serious, weighty and honest, will not have even a subordinate work in the regional diplomatic arena centred on the DPRK [The Democratic Republic of Korea],” Kim said, using the official names for the two countries.
“The ROK cannot be a diplomatic partner of the DPRK,” she added.
The statement followed the latest outreach by Lee, who said last week that Seoul would seek to restore a 2018 military agreement between the two countries aimed at reducing border tensions, while urging Pyongyang to reciprocate by rebuilding trust and resuming dialogue.
Since taking office in June, Lee has moved to repair relations that worsened under his conservative predecessor’s hardline policies, including removing front-line speakers that broadcast anti-North Korean propaganda and K-pop.
In a nationally televised speech on Friday, Lee said his government respects North Korea’s current system and that Seoul “will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and has no intention of engaging in hostile acts”.
But he also stressed that South Korea remains committed to an international push to denuclearise North Korea and urged Pyongyang to resume dialogue with Washington and Seoul.
Kim Yo Jong, who previously dismissed Lee’s overtures as a “miscalculation”, described the latest gestures as “a fancy and a pipe dream”.
“We have witnessed and experienced the dirty political system of the ROK for decades… and now we are sick and tired of it,” she said, claiming that South Korea’s “ambition for confrontation” with North Korea has persisted both under the conservative and liberal governments.
“Lee Jae-myung is not that man to change this flow of history” she continued, adding that “the South Korean “government continues to speak rambling pretence about peace and improving relations in order to lay the blame on us for inter-Korean relations never returning again”.
Kim Yo Jong’s comments follow Kim Jong Un’s statements, carried by KCNA on Tuesday, which called the US-South Korea military exercises an “obvious expression of their will to provoke war”. He also promised a rapid expansion of his nuclear forces as he inspected his most advanced warship being fitted with nuclear-capable systems.
The North Korean leader last year declared that North Korea was abandoning longstanding goals of a peaceful unification with South Korea and rewrote Pyongyang’s constitution to mark Seoul as a permanent enemy.
His government has repeatedly dismissed calls by Washington and Seoul to revive negotiations aimed at winding down his nuclear and missile programmes, which derailed in 2019, after a collapsed summit with US President Donald Trump during his first term.
Kim has also made Moscow the priority of his foreign policy since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sending troops and weapons to support President Vladimir Putin’s war, while also using the conflict as a distraction to accelerate his military nuclear programme.
North Korea’s leader threatens to speed up Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal expansion over a sign of ‘hostile intent’.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has threatened to accelerate the expansion of his country’s nuclear arsenal, condemning ongoing United States-South Korea military exercises as a sign of “hostile intent”, according to state media.
Kim, who made the remarks during a visit to a naval destroyer, called the drills “an obvious expression of their will to provoke war”, according to a report published on Tuesday.
He insisted North Korea must “rapidly expand” its nuclear weapons programme, pointing to the inclusion of what he called “nuclear elements” in the drills.
The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills began this week, combining large-scale field manoeuvres with upgraded responses to what the US and South Korea claim are North Korea’s growing nuclear capabilities.
The exercises will run for 11 days, with half of the 40 field training events rescheduled to September.
Purely defensive
South Korean officials said the adjustment reflects President Lee Jae Myung’s call to lower tensions, though analysts doubt Pyongyang will respond positively.
Seoul and Washington claim the exercises are purely defensive, but Pyongyang regularly denounces them as preparations for invasion and has often replied with weapons tests.
North Korea’s position is expected to feature in talks between US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee in Washington later this month, with efforts to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions high on the agenda.
“Through this move, North Korea is demonstrating its refusal to accept denuclearisation and the will to irreversibly upgrade nuclear weapons,” said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
Research published by the Federation of American Scientists last year estimated that North Korea may have produced enough fissile material for up to 90 nuclear warheads, though the number actually assembled was likely closer to 50.
Alongside its nuclear ambitions, Pyongyang is also advancing its naval capabilities. The North Korean public broadcaster KCNA reported that the country aims to complete construction of a third 5,000-tonne Choe Hyon-class destroyer by October next year, and is testing cruise and anti-air missiles for the vessels.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un condemned a U.S.-South Korean joint military drill as showing a “will to ignite a war,” state media reported Tuesday. Kim made the comments while inspecting a 5,000-ton destroyer, similar to one he visited in June. File Photo by KCNA/EPA-EFE
SEOUL, Aug. 19 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said a U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise showed their “will to ignite a war” and called for the rapid expansion of Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities, state media reported Tuesday.
“The U.S.-ROK intensified military nexus and the muscle-flexing are the most obvious manifestation of their will to ignite a war,” Kim said, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Kim made the remark as he inspected the North’s first 5,000-ton destroyer, the Choe Hyon, at Nampo Shipyard on Monday — the same day that the United States and South Korea kicked off an 11-day joint military exercise.
The annual summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield includes live field maneuvers, computer simulation-based command post exercises and related civil defense drills. Some 21,000 troops, including 18,000 South Korean personnel, are participating this year.
Kim said the allies’ joint drills “have always been provocative and dangerous in their nature but the gravity is increasing,” according to KCNA.
“The security environment around the DPRK is getting more serious day by day and the prevailing situation requires us to make a radical and swift change in the existing military theory and practice and rapid expansion of nuclearization,” he said.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
During his visit to Nampo Shipyard, Kim received a report on the Choe Hyon’s various weapons systems and expressed “satisfaction over the fact that the major tasks for making the navy high-tech and nuclear-armed are progressing on a stage-by-stage basis as planned,” KCNA said.
The destroyer, which was launched in April, is armed with a wide range of weapons including anti-aircraft missiles, 127mm naval guns and nuclear-capable cruise and ballistic missiles, according to North Korean reports.
A second destroyer, named the Kang Kon, was unveiled in May but suffered a launch accident that left it listing on its side.
Kim, who was in attendance at the launch, called the mishap a “criminal act” and warned of serious consequences for those found responsible.
The ship was repaired and relaunched in June, although analysts have questioned whether it is fully operational. At that ceremony, Kim vowed to “commission two destroyers of the same class or higher into the navy every year.”
Kim’s latest comments come as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is making a push to improve inter-Korean relations.
In a speech Friday marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee vowed to “respect” North Korea’s political system and said Seoul would not pursue “unification by absorption.”
“We have no intention of engaging in hostile acts,” Lee said. “Going forward, our government will take consistent measures to substantially reduce tensions and restore trust.”
North Korea has so far rebuffed Lee’s overtures. Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, recently condemned Seoul’s “blind trust” in its military alliance with Washington and mocked reconciliation efforts as “nothing but a pipedream.”
Aug. 18 (UPI) — President Trump, as you sit down with President Lee Jae Myung on Aug. 25, you must not be swayed by his dangerously naive stance on “respect” for North Korea‘s political system. I say this not as a politician or a pundit, but as a soldier and practitioner/strategist who has spent his life confronting the nature of authoritarian regimes and understanding what it takes to resist them. President Lee’s position, that South Korea should affirm “respect” for the North’s totalitarian system and renounce unification by absorption, is not only strategically misguided but also morally bankrupt. It plays directly into Kim Jong Un‘s political warfare playbook, undermines the very purpose of the ROK/U.S. alliance, and sends a chilling message to 25 million oppressed Koreans living under tyranny.
Let’s be crystal clear: North Korea (with its Workers Party of Korea) is not a legitimate political system (which is why many of us write “north” in the lower case, though our editors often correct this). It is not a state that deserves our diplomatic courtesies or rhetorical deference. It is a mafia-like crime family cult masquerading as a government. It is a totalitarian regime that has committed, and continues to commit, crimes against humanity, as documented exhaustively in the 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report. These are not allegations. They are facts backed by satellite images, eyewitness testimony, and escapee accounts. We are talking about gulags, torture chambers, public executions, and enforced starvation. To “respect” such a system is to betray the Korean people in the North who suffer daily under its jackboot.
President Lee’s argument is that by affirming respect and renouncing absorption, he can create space for inter-Korean dialogue and reduce tensions. But this is a fantasy built on hope, not strategy. The Kim family regime does not seek coexistence. It seeks domination. It does not want peace. It wants submission. It does not seek reconciliation. It seeks leverage. Every time a South Korean leader or American president makes conciliatory gestures without demanding reciprocal action, Kim Jong Un sees it not as good faith, but as weakness. He exploits it to gain legitimacy, extract economic concessions, and drive wedges into our alliance.
President Lee says he is not seeking unification by absorption. Fine. But he also says he “respects” the North’s political system. That is where the real danger lies. Because the more we normalize the abnormal, the more we embolden the regime to harden its rule. What the Korean people in the North deserve is not the international community’s respect for their captors, but solidarity with their longing for liberation. They deserve a unified Korea, not by force, but by freedom. That is not absorption. That is self-determination.
President Trump, you know what it means to negotiate from a position of strength. You know how dangerous it is to give away leverage before the other side has made a single concession. Do not allow your personal rapport with Kim Jong Un, or your desire for a legacy-defining deal, to cloud your judgment. You called Kim “rocket man” before you exchanged “love letters.” But love letters won’t free the Korean people, and respect for the regime won’t bring peace.
President Lee’s gestures, halting propaganda broadcasts, telling activists to stop sending leaflets and restoring the 2018 military agreement, may seem like confidence-building measures. But without reciprocity, they are simply appeasement. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and a key regime mouthpiece, has already dismissed Lee’s outreach as a “pipe dream.” That should tell us everything we need to know about Pyongyang’s intentions.
The ROK/U.S. alliance must remain grounded in shared values, freedom and liberty, human rights, and the rule of law. Any strategy that begins by legitimizing the enemy’s political system undermines those very values. You would never “respect” ISIS’s caliphate or al-Qaeda’s ideology. Why offer respect to a regime that systematically enslaves its own people and threatens nuclear war?
To be clear, no one is advocating war. We are advocating clarity of purpose and unity of message. Our strategic objective must remain what it has always been: the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula under a liberal democratic system that guarantees the rights and dignity of all Koreans. That does not require invasion. It requires principled resistance to tyranny and a long-term strategy to support internal change, what some might call a Korean-led, values-based unification.
You have the power to set the tone for this summit. Do not give Kim Jong Un the propaganda victory of seeing the leader of the free world align with a South Korean president who chooses appeasement over accountability. Instead, reaffirm the alliance’s moral foundation. Remember the image of Ji Seung Ho holding up his crutches at your first State of the Union address to inspire all of us with his escape from the North. Speak directly to the Korean people in the North: We have not forgotten you. We will not abandon you. We do not “respect” your oppressors. We believe in your future.
Mr. President, history will remember what you say in that room with President Lee. Will you echo his message of concession? Or will you stand firm on the principles that made America great and the alliance strong?
I urge you, do not be persuaded by words that excuse oppression. Instead, speak truth. And let that truth be a beacon to all Koreans, North and South, who still believe in freedom.
David Maxwell is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel who has spent more than 30 years in the Asia Pacific region. He specializes in Northeast Asian security affairs and irregular, unconventional and political warfare. He is vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy and a senior fellow at the Global Peace Foundation. After he retired, he became associate director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. He is on the board of directors of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the OSS Society and is the editor at large for the Small Wars Journal.
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (UPI) — The United States and South Korea kicked off their annual summertime joint military exercise on Monday, amid efforts by Seoul to improve relations with North Korea.
The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which runs through Aug. 28, includes live field maneuvers, computer simulation-based command post exercises and related civil defense drills. Some 21,000 troops will be mobilized, including 18,000 South Korean personnel.
The North will “strictly exercise the sovereign right of the DPRK at the level of the right to self-defense in a case of any provocation going beyond the boundary line,” Defense Minister No Kwang Choi said in a statement.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
The joint exercise comes as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung makes a push to improve inter-Korean relations.
In a speech Friday marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee vowed to “respect” North Korea’s political system and said Seoul would not pursue “unification by absorption.”
“We have no intention of engaging in hostile acts,” Lee said. “Going forward, our government will take consistent measures to substantially reduce tensions and restore trust.”
Among the measures Lee has called for is the restoration of the 2018 inter-Korean military pact, which was suspended in 2024 amid growing hostility between Seoul and Pyongyang.
The pact established buffer zones along the border and included measures such as the removal of some guard posts in the DMZ and the banning of live-fire exercises in certain areas
At a Cabinet meeting Monday, Lee instructed relevant ministries to “prepare for a phased implementation of existing inter-Korean agreements, starting with those that are possible.”
He also chaired a National Security Council meeting and emphasized that Ulchi Freedom Shield is defensive in nature, a presidential spokeswoman said.
The exercise is meant “to protect the lives and safety of our citizens and is not intended to attack North Korea or escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.” Lee said, according to spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung.
Seoul has already made conciliatory gestures since Lee took office in June, such as removing its propaganda loudspeakers from border areas and calling on activists to stop floating balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the North.
Half of Ulchi Freedom Shield’s 44 planned field training exercises have been rescheduled to next month, with U.S. military officials citing a heatwave and flooding damage to training areas as the primary reasons. Local media have reported that the move is also being made in an effort to avoid provoking the North.
A spokesman for Seoul’s Defense Ministry said at a briefing on Monday that there were no plans to suspend live-fire drills near the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea, which has long been a source of dispute with Pyongyang.
IT’S the showpiece beach resort at the heart of Kim Jong-un’s plans for a holiday empire – but the “North Korean Benidorm” hides a dark secret.
The Wonsan-Kalma resort reportedly got its nickname after dictator Kim sent a fact-finding mission to Spain’s Costa Blanca in 2017.
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North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un opens Wonsan-Kalma pet project beach resortCredit: Reuters
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The strip running along Wonsan before it was officially openedCredit: AFP
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The resort has opened for its first guestsCredit: East2West
But unlike its Mediterranean rival, Wonsan-Kalma has a history filled with forced labour, human rights abuses – and poo.
The horrors began right at the start of the project, when the regime press-ganged teenage schoolkids into “shock brigades” of builders.
Pyongyang propaganda bragged that these youths were building the resort’s hotels at the rate of a storey per day in a December 2019 report.
But by then two deadlines to finish the job had already passed, and with a third looming, builders were made to work almost round the clock in icy temperatures.
Party chiefs mobilised workers “in the bitter cold of January, February, and March, allowing them to sleep for only three hours a day,” a source told the Daily NK newspaper.
And though the regime called the youths “volunteers”, really they had no real choice.
People are forced into “shock brigades” with the threat of arrest and detention in labour camps, according to a UN report about forced labour in North Korea.
Recruits get a monthly wage that is “only enough to buy two packs of cigarettes”, the report added, and are fed so little that malnutrition is widespread.
Workers at Wonsan lived off “foul-smelling seaweed soup, salted radishes and yellow corn rice,” according to Daily NK.
Female workers faced an added peril.
First tourists visit North Korea’s ghostly ‘Benidorm’ resort where ‘minders’ follow visitors & phones are ‘bugged’
One woman quoted by the UN recalled how shock brigade chiefs “harassed” them and said “many women were sexually abused”.
North Korea expert Michael Madden described the backbreaking toil faced by “volunteers” at Wonsan.
He said: “Youth Shock Brigades would be involved in digging foundations, framing, painting, paving, and moving materials and supplies.
“Pay for brigade members is minimal.
“In the past, the brigade members were not provided adequate food supplies and stole from local populations.”
Today the resort welcomes Russian visitors and members of the North Korean elite.
But guests may be surprised to learn that they’re not the first to stay in the brand-new hotels.
When the third deadline for finishing the resort passed in April 2020, the site lay almost abandoned for months as Covid-19 spread around the world.
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The sea did not look particularly inviting for the first batch of visitorsCredit: AFP
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Kim shows his daughter Kim Ju Ae around the inside of one of the hotelsCredit: Reuters
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Kim waved to adoring fans at an opening ceremony at the end of JuneCredit: AFP
Soon reports emerged that homeless wanderers – known as kkotjebi in North Korea – had moved in to the skeletal hotels.
“The buildings are no different from toilets, with bowel movements left behind by the kkotjebi everywhere,” a source told Daily NK.
“Now they’re full of human waste and soot from fires.”
The same report also revealed that the resort’s planning chief and site manager had been sacked in 2019 amid mounting delays.
It’s a punishment with potentially fatal consequences.
Mr Madden, the founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, and a fellow of the Stimson Center in Washington DC, said nothing had been heard of either of them since.
If they were blamed for inefficiencies or incompetence, he said, they probably faced demotion, intensive indoctrination, and a manual labour assignment.
“On the other hand if there was malfeasance or some type of corruption, then both of these people have, at the least, faced a lengthy incarceration,” he continued.
“If these individuals had a habit of corrupt activities on Wonsan-Kalma and any previous projects, then one or both project managers faced the firing squad.”
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Kim Jong Un opens Wonsan-Kalma pet project beach resortCredit: East2West
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Kim Jong Un and his daughter Ju Ae inspecting a hotel during a visit to the resortCredit: AFP
Before it was a holiday destination, Wonsan was a missile launch site. Indeed the rockets continued blasting off even as the hotels took shape.
And ultimately, that’s how money spent by tourists will be used.
Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, warned holidaymakers not to fund Kim’s “tools of death”.
He said: “The money coming from tourists, mostly Russians at the moment, will go to the areas that the regime regards as critical to its survival.
“These are: keeping the Kim family rich, and the key elites happy, as well as developing nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and other tools of death.”
The North Korean tourism push, which seeks to raise foreign currency, has also seen the regime open the Masikryong Ski Resort, and Yangdok hot springs resort.
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A North Korean man makes the most of the water park at Wonsan after it openedCredit: AFP
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The resort can accommodate up to 20,000 people, according to reportsCredit: East2West
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Russian tourist Daria Zubkova shows an empty beach in Wonsan-Kalma resortCredit: East2West
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivered a speech Friday marking the 80th anniversary of Liberation Day during a ceremony held at the Sejong Center for Performing Arts in Seoul. Pool Photo by Yonhap/EPA
SEOUL, Aug. 15 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pledged to “respect” North Korea‘s political system and said Seoul would not seek unilateral reunification in a speech to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula on Friday.
“We affirm our respect for the North’s current system, aver that we will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and assert that we have no intention of engaging in hostile acts,” Lee said in a ceremony at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul.
Liberation Day commemorates the end of Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea. The holiday is also celebrated in North Korea.
Lee’s administration has made efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas since he took office in June. In his speech Friday, he drew a sharp contrast with his predecessor, ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, who took a hardline approach in dealing with the North.
“Inter-Korean dialogue, which had been maintained through countless ups and downs, was completely halted during the previous administration,” Lee said. “Going forward, our government will take consistent measures to substantially reduce tensions and restore trust.”
Lee said he would take “proactive and gradual steps” to restore the 2018 inter-Korean military pact that was suspended amid tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang during the Yoon administration in 2024.
The pact established buffer zones along the border and included measures such as the removal of some guard posts in the DMZ and the banning of live-fire exercises in certain areas.
Seoul has already made conciliatory gestures such as removing its propaganda loudspeakers from border areas and calling on activists to stop floating balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the North.
The South’s military reported that North Korea began dismantling its own speakers, but Pyongyang denied the claim on Thursday.
In his speech, Lee said the 80th anniversary was “an opportune time to end the era of confrontation and hostility and jointly usher in a new era of peaceful coexistence and shared growth on the Korean Peninsula.”
“I hope that North Korea will reciprocate our efforts to restore trust and revive dialogue,” he added.
South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung said he will restore a military agreement to rebuild trust with North Korea.
South Korea has said it intends to restore an agreement suspending military activity along its border with North Korea and revive inter-Korean cooperation, as President Lee Jae-myung attempts to dampen soaring tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme and deepening ties with Russia.
Marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule on Friday, Lee said he will seek to restore the so-called September 19 Military Agreement and rebuild trust with North Korea.
“To prevent accidental clashes between South and North Korea and to build military trust, we will take proactive, gradual steps to restore the [2018] September 19 Military Agreement,” Lee said in a televised speech.
Lee added that his government “will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and has no intention of engaging in hostile acts” against its northern neighbour.
The September 19 agreement was signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, where the leaders of both countries declared the start of a new era of peace.
But Seoul partially suspended the deal in late 2023 after it objected to North Korea launching a military spy satellite into space, with Pyongyang then effectively ripping up the deal as it deployed heavy weapons into the Demilitarized Zone between both countries and restored guard posts.
Tensions then spiralled between the two Koreas under Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s conservative ex-president who was elected in 2022 but removed from office in April and is now serving jail time for his brief imposition of martial law in December.
South Korea and North Korea – separated along the heavily militarised buffer zone known as the 38th parallel – are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Making clear his desire to resume dialogue with Pyongyang since winning a snap election in June, South Korea’s new left-leaning President Lee has taken a softer tone and sought rapprochement with North Korea.
Soon after his inauguration and in his government’s first concrete step towards easing tensions, Lee halted the South blasting propaganda messages and K-pop songs across the border into the North.
Earlier this month, South Korea began removing its loudspeakers from its side of the border, while Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed it had evidence that Pyongyang was doing the same.
But, on Thursday, Kim Yo Jong – the powerful sister of North Korea’s long-ruling leader Kim Jong Un – dampened any suggestion of warming ties between the Koreas.
Kim, who oversees the propaganda operations of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which has ruled the country since 1948, accused Seoul of misleading the public and “building up the public opinion while embellishing their new policy” towards Pyongyang.
“We have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them,” Kim said.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday denied Seoul’s claim that the North had begun removing propaganda speakers inside the DMZ, state-run media reported. File Pool Photo by Jorge Silva/EPA-EFE
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (UPI) — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday denied Seoul’s claim that the North had begun removing propaganda speakers inside the DMZ and dismissed South Korean outreach efforts as a “pipedream,” state-run media reported.
South Korea is “misleading the public opinion by saying that we have removed the loudspeakers installed on the southern border area,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
“It is unfounded unilateral supposition and a red herring,” she said. “We have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them.”
The South’s military removed its anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeakers from border areas inside the DMZ last week. The Joint Chiefs of Staff reported over the weekend that North Korea began dismantling its own speakers in some forward areas,
On Tuesday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung commented on the North’s “reciprocal measures” during a cabinet meeting, saying he hoped it would lead to renewed inter-Korean dialogue and communication.
Lee’s administration has made efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas since he took office in June. In addition to the loudspeaker removal, Seoul has cracked down on activists floating balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border and recently repatriated six North Koreans who drifted into southern waters on wooden boats.
Kim’s statement comes days before Seoul and Washington are scheduled to commence their summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise, set for Aug. 18-28. North Korea regularly denounces the allies’ joint drills as rehearsals for an invasion.
Half of Ulchi Freedom Shield’s 44 planned field training exercises have been rescheduled to next month, with local media reports claiming the move was made to avoid provoking Pyongyang.
Kim, however, rejected Seoul’s gestures as “nothing but a pipedream.”
“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,” she said, using the official acronym for South Korea.
In response to Kim’s statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff maintained the military’s account that the North had removed some of its loudspeakers.
“The military has explained the facts regarding what it observed, and I believe we need to be careful not to be misled by the other side’s stated intentions,” JCS spokesman Col. Lee Sung-jun said at a briefing Thursday. “North Korea has always made claims that are untrue.”
Kim Yo Jong denies claims that Pyongyang has removed propaganda-blaring loudspeakers at the inter-Korean border.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister has accused South Korea of misleading the public about ties between the Koreas, denying claims that Pyongyang removed some propaganda-blaring loudspeakers from their shared border.
In a statement carried by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, Kim Yo Jong blasted the claim by South Korea’s military as an “unfounded unilateral supposition and a red herring.”
“We have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them,” Kim said.
Kim accused Seoul of “building up the public opinion while embellishing their new policy” towards Pyongyang.
“It is their foolish calculation that if they manage to make us respond to their actions, it would be good, and if not, their actions will at least reflect their ‘efforts for detente’ and they will be able to shift the responsibility for the escalation of tensions onto the DPRK and win the support of the world,” Kim said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Such a “trick” is nothing but a “pipedream” and “does not arouse our interest at all,” Kim added.
“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,” she said, using the acronym of South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
“The shabby deceptive farce is no longer attractive.”
In a statement quoted by local media, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification did not directly address Kim’s claims, but said it would continue its efforts toward the “normalisation” and “stabilisation” of inter-Korean ties.
Kim’s broadside comes after South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Saturday that Pyongyang had removed some of the loudspeakers, days after the South Korean side took down similar speakers on its side of the border.
North Korea is highly sensitive to criticism of the ruling Kim family, which has ruled the isolated state with iron first for nearly eight decades and is treated with God-like reverence in official commentary.
Since the inauguration of left-leaning South Korean President Lee Jae-myung in June, Seoul has been seeking rapprochement with its reclusive neighbour, after years of elevated tensions between the Koreas under the conservative ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol.
But Kim Yo Jong, who oversees the propaganda operations of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, has repeatedly shot down the possibility of reconciliation between the sides.
In a scathing dismissal of Lee’s rapprochement efforts last month, Kim said there was no “more serious miscalculation” than believing that relations could be repaired “with a few sentimental words.”
In her remarks on Thursday, Kim also poured scorn on South Korean media reports suggesting that Pyongyang could use Friday’s summit between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to communicate with Washington.
“This is a typical proof that the ROK is having a false dream,” she said.
“If a dream is dreamed very often, it will be an empty one, and so many suppositions will lead to so many contradictions that will not be solved. Why should we send a message to the US side.”
