Kim Yo-jong blames Seoul for border tensions, threatens to resume loudspeaker broadcasts
The North Korean leader's powerful sister blamed "warmongers" in the South's military for making the inter-Korean border "very unstable," citing warning shots and loudspeaker warnings by South Korean troops.
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader kim Jong-un, speaks in an event held in North Korea in a footage carried by Korean Central TV.
YONHAP
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Monday blamed South Korea for escalating tensions along the border and threatened to resume anti-South loudspeaker broadcasts.
"Now the situation of the southern border is very unstable," Kim Yo-jong, the director of the general affairs department of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, said in a statement carried by the regime-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"The warmongers of the ROK military are seriously threatening the safety of our service personnel by firing warning shots at them with automatic rifles and large-caliber machine guns,” Kim said, referring to South Korea by its abbreviated official name, the Republic of Korea.
Kim dismissed a land mine explosion along the western section of the military demarcation line on Sept. 21 as a self-staged act. She also accused Seoul of escalating its provocations beyond acceptable limits.
She alleged that South Korean troops had intensified their provocations across multiple border areas by issuing more than 350 loudspeaker warnings and firing warning shots on over 60 occasions between Thursday and Saturday. She claimed that Seoul had issued 998 loudspeaker warnings and fired warning shots 91 times from the start of this month through Saturday.
Kim accused the Lee Jae Myung administration of putting on a show of peace and reconciliation since taking office while pursuing a more aggressive policy toward Pyongyang than the previous conservative government under Yoon Suk Yeol.
The North Korean leader’s powerful sister also accused Seoul of using military provocations to show off its readiness while obstructing Pyongyang's border fortifications. She warned that such recklessness would only deepen the crisis and invite disaster.
"To cope with the prevailing situation, our military leadership is examining the issues of deploying more tactical strike means along the southern border as a pre-emptive and suppressive measure to deal with contingency, and of resuming loudspeaker broadcasting against the ROK, and considering other necessary and appropriate measures," she said.
Kim warned that the South Korean military's actions were putting North Korean troops and border security at constant risk, and threatened that Seoul would face severe consequences and dangers beyond its control if the provocations continued. She also reiterated that North Korea does not defend its sovereignty through words alone.
BY KIM EUN-BIN [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
