North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong says no chance of improved ties with the South

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has rebuked claims from the South Korean government that Pyongyang was leaving room for more “communication” following an incident involving drones on the border between both countries.

Kim, who is a high-ranking member of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, said the South had committed a “grave provocation by infringing upon the sovereignty” of the North when it allegedly sent drones over the border in September and this month.

“As far as Seoul’s various hope-filled wild dreams called ‘repair of relations’ are concerned, they all can never come true,” she said on Wednesday, according to North Korean state media.

Pyongyang first reported the drone incidents on Saturday, which it described as an “act of provocation”, and published photos of what it said were wrecked drones shot down near the border.

Seoul swiftly launched an investigation and found that its military does not use the drone models pictured in the photos, suggesting the unmanned aerial vehicles may have been launched by South Korean civilians.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung described the incident as a “serious crime that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and national security”.

Amid the back and forth between Seoul and Pyongyang, Kim followed up with a statement on Sunday demanding a “detailed explanation” from the South but also acknowledged that South Korea’s military had “no intention to provoke or irritate us”.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification interpreted the message as a sign that Pyongyang was open to more “communication”, the country’s Yonhap News Agency said.

Statements from the North are carefully parsed by Seoul for subtle shifts in tone or wording that could signal a change in policy.

Seoul is also on high alert for any response from Kim, who is reportedly being groomed to succeed her brother and could one day lead North Korea.

But Kim quickly hit back on Wednesday at the Unification Ministry’s assessment and said its expectation of a detente or more communication was a “poor one”.

She also criticised a meeting between Lee and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who met in Japan this week and reaffirmed that Seoul and Tokyo should continue to work with the United States to maintain peace in East Asia.

“The chief executive is so busy with his solicitation diplomacy abroad, and the authorities are going so earnestly to pretend that they are to show goodwill, harbouring a daydream. But the present address of the relations can never change,” Kim said, according to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.