North Korea 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, August 14, 2025, Kim Yo Jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, blasted the claim by South Korea’s military as an “unfounded unilateral supposition and a red herring.”
Kim stressed that North Korea has never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and is not willing to remove them. She also 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 Yo Jong
DPRK is the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Kim added that such a “trick” is nothing but a “pipedream” and “does not arouse our interest at all.”
“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. The shabby, deceptive farce is no longer attractive.”
Kim Yo Jong
ROK is the acronym of South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
Kim’s broadside comes after South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said over the weekend that Pyongyang had removed some of the loudspeakers, days after the South Korean side took down similar speakers on its side of the border.
The South’s military began removing its speakers from border areas last week but did not say if they would be redeployed if tensions flared again.
North Korea is highly sensitive to criticism of the Kim family, which has ruled the isolated state with an iron fist for nearly eight decades and is treated with extreme 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.
However, 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.”
North Korea Dismisses Reports Of Interest In talks with US
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 via Moscow.
“This is a typical proof that the ROK is having a false dream. 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?”
Kim Yo Jong
In a statement quoted by local media, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification did not directly address Kim’s claims, but said that it would continue its efforts towards the “normalisation” and “stabilisation” of inter-Korean ties.
Experts say that the North clearly feels no urgency to resume diplomacy with South Korea and the US anytime soon and remains focused on its alignment with Russia.
Tensions on the peninsula could rise later this month with the large-scale annual combined US-South Korean military exercises that start August18, 2025.
North Korea portrays the joint drills as invasion rehearsals and often uses them as a pretext for military demonstrations and weapons tests to advance its nuclear program.
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