Seoul, South Korea CNN —

South Korea remains “the enemy” of North Korea despite recent moves by Seoul to ease tensions along the 38th parallel, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in state media Monday.

North Korea has “no interest” in talks with the South no matter what proposal is offered, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim’s comments mark North Korea’s first official response since the new South Korean government took office on June 4 following months of political turmoil over the disgraced former leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration in December.

Yoon said the martial law declaration, which the National Assembly rescinded after six hours, was necessary to fight North Korean influence among opponents to his leadership in the South Korean government.

Conciliatory overtures made since President Lee Jae Myung’s election hadn’t erased how South Korea’s military alliance with the United States had “stained” the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, she added.

The new South Korean president’s reaffirmation of the US alliance shows there is no chance for improved North-South relations, the statement said.

Kim said the new Lee administration would be little different from Yoon’s government, describing what she called its “blind trust” in Seoul’s alliance with Washington.

“There can be no change in our state’s understanding of the enemy, and they cannot turn back the hands of the clock of the history,” Kim said in Monday’s statement.

A South Korean army tank is moved on a pontoon bridge during a US-South Korea joint river-crossing exercise which is a part of the annual Freedom Shield joint military training, near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Yeoncheon, South Korea, March 20, 2025. Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

Former President Yoon endorsed a hardline stance against Pyongyang, bolstered by strong South Korean-US military relations, which included ramping up joint military exercises, seeing assets like a US Navy ballistic missile submarine and aircraft carriers visit South Korean ports, and participation in trilateral military exercises with Japan – also a North Korean foe – as well as the US.

In its first official comments on North-South relations under the Lee administration, South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Monday said Seoul would continue to look for ways to engage with Pyongyang.

Unification Ministry spokesperson Koo Byoung-sam noted that Kim’s comments were not especially hostile or mocking, compared to her previous statements on inter-Korean relations.

But, Koo said, it shows that Pyongyang is closely watching the Lee administration’s North Korea policy, while “the wall of mistrust” between the two Koreas is “very high.”

In an attempt to ease tensions, Lee’s government has suspended loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone and stopped the distribution of South Korean leaflets dropped from balloons into the North.

In 2024, North Korea scrapped a longstanding policy of seeking peaceful reunification and blew up roads and bridges that could link the two countries as relations soured.

In response to the road destruction in October, the South Korean military opened fire within the area south of the military demarcation line while announcing it was maintaining “fully readiness posture under cooperation with the US.”

But the new South Korean government will be less reactionary, said Koo, the Unification Ministry spokesperson.

“The government will consistently make efforts to create inter-Korean relations of reconciliation and cooperation and to realize coexistence of peace on the Korean Peninsula without being sensitive to North Korea’s response,” he said.

Israel announced a daily “tactical pause” in fighting in Gaza over the weekend amid accusations that its policies are exacerbating the growing hunger experienced there.

Israel has drawn sharp criticism from EU countries such as France as conditions for civilians have worsened in Gaza. Observers say Palestinians run the risk of being shot by Israeli forces as they approach the few aid spots run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

In addition, they say the aid distributed at those few spots is nowhere near what is needed.

Israel, meanwhile, blames the acute hunger Palestinians experience on Hamas, saying the terrorist organization that runs Gaza has been diverting food and selling it at high markups to fund its war.

Who do you think is more responsible? Let us know by voting in the poll.

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.

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.

North Korea continues to back Russia’s war against Ukraine To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

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.

How firm is North Korea’s stance?

North Korea has continued rejecting dialogue with South Korea and the US, focusing instead on strengthening its nuclear weapons program since Kim Jong Un’s diplomacy with Donald Trump collapsed in 2019 over sanctions disputes during the US president’s first term in office.

In response to Pyongyang’s rejection of Lee’s efforts, Seoul said it “reaffirms the high level of mistrust between the two due to years of hostile policies.”

“We take this as a sign that the North is closely monitoring the Lee administration’s North Korea policy,” South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Koo Byung-sam told a press briefing.

Trump, who began his second term in January, has frequently highlighted his personal rapport with Kim and said he is open to resuming negotiations. So far, North Korea has not responded publicly.

Kim notably ordered the removal of peaceful unification as a constitutional goal in early 2024, labeling South Korea an “invariable principal enemy.” The move was viewed as a historic break from past leaders’ long-held aim of a unified Korea — albeit on the North’s terms.

The two Koreas technically remain at war, as the 1950–53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed a proposal to hold talks with South Korea’s new liberal government.

Kim Yo Jong dismissed South Korean president Lee Jae Myung’s bid to mend ties with Pyongyang. Relations between the neighbours reached a nadir over cross-border tensions last year.

“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 a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with” Ms Kim said in an official statement published by the Korean Central News Agency on Monday.

Since taking office in June, Mr Lee has taken drastic measures to mend ties with the North. His administration has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, banned activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border, and repatriated North Koreans who had drifted south in wooden boats a few months earlier.

Ms Kim, who oversees propaganda operations for the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, called Mr Lee’s decision to halt the broadcasts a “reversible turning back of what they should not have done in the first place”.

If South Korea “expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words”, nothing could be a “more serious miscalculation”, Ms Kim said.

She acknowledged the “sincere efforts” by Mr Lee but claimed that his new government would not be much different than its predecessors due to its “blind trust” in the alliance with the US.

Ms Kim referred to next month’s South Korea-US military drills. The North views the annual drills as an invasion rehearsal.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his sister Kim Yo Jong attend a meeting with South Korean president Moon Jae In at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarised zone separating the two nations on 27 April 2018 (REUTERS)

North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the US since Kim Jong Un’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with president Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang now prioritises cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance.

South Korea, the US and their allies say Russia may give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programmes.

Since starting his second term in January, Mr Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Mr Kim and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn’t publicly responded to Mr Trump’s overtures.

In early 2024, Mr Kim ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an “invariable principal enemy”.

The move caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors’ long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North’s terms.

The South Korean president this month said he would discuss further plans with top security officials to resume dialogue with North Korea.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, delivers a speech during a national meeting against the coronavirus in Pyongyang on Aug. 10, 2022. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

SEOUL–The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed overtures by South Korea’s new liberal government, saying Monday that North Korea has no interests in talks with South Korea no matter what proposal its rival offers.

Kim Yo Jong’s comments suggest again that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end.

“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 a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with” South Korea, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.

It’s North Korea’s first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June. In an effort to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea, Lee’s government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier.

Kim Yo Jong called such steps “sincere efforts” by Lee’s government to develop ties. But she said the Lee government won’t be much different from its predecessors, citing what it calls “their blind trust” to the military alliance with the U.S. and attempt to “stand in confrontation” with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-U.S. military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.

North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the U.S. since leader Kim Jong Un’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals.

North Korea now prioritizes cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the U.S. and others say Russia may even give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs.

Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn’t publicly responded to Trump’s overture.

In early 2024, Kim Jong Un ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an “invariable principal enemy.” That caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors’ long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North’s terms.

Many experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family’s dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it as a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of national homogeneity.