North Korea: Kim Jong Un’s sister rejects South’s overtures

NORTH KOREA: North Korea is not interested in talks with South Korea, Kim Jong Un’s powerful younger sister says. Kim Yo Jong says there is “nothing to discuss,” despite conciliatory moves from Seoul’s new president.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on Monday dismissed the idea of a reset in relations with Seoul, despite dovish overtures from new South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

In the North’s first official comments on Lee’s administration, Kim criticized what she described as Seoul’s “blind trust” in its alliance with Washington.

Why was Kim’s sister making the comments?

Since coming to power in June, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has broken with the hawkish approach of his predecessor to North Korea, ending loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border.

Seoul had started playing out loud political messages in response to North Korea flying trash-filled balloons across the frontier. The balloons were said to carry with them waste ranging from household garbage and cigarette butts to fertilizer, batteries, and parasite-contaminated soil.

North Korea responded with its own cross-border broadcasts of unpleasant noises, such as sirens and scraping metal, into the South.

President Lee has said he would seek talks with the North without preconditions after relations plummeted to their worst level in years under his conservative predecessor.

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What did Kim Yo Jong say?

In a message in English carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency on Monday, Kim said the South should not expect any thawing of relations.

“If the ROK [Republic of Korea]… expects to reverse all the consequences of (its actions) with a few sentimental words, there could be no greater miscalculation than that,” she said, using the official name for South Korea.

“We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither [any] reason to meet nor [any] issue to be discussed with the ROK,” she added.

As well as stopping the loudspeaker broadcasts, the South has tried to ban civilian activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border. It has also repatriated six North Koreans who had drifted south in wooden fishing boats months earlier. The individuals had expressed a wish to return to the North.

While Kim Yo Jong called such steps “sincere efforts” by Lee’s government, she added that it would not ultimately by different from its predecessors.

She cited the South’s “blind trust” in its military alliance with the US and its attempt to “stand in confrontation” with North Korea.

Kim also mentioned upcoming South Korea-US military exercises, which Pyongyang views as a rehearsal for invasion.

Kim Yo Jong is seen as her brother’s closest confidante and has played a key role in shaping his public image and in policy decisions.