BEIJING - Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on Thursday warned that unspecified new countermeasures and loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts against South Korea will be ready in the near future, state-run media said, amid tensions over landmine explosions along the border.
The powerful sister, who serves as a senior ruling party official, issued the warning through the official Korean Central News Agency a day after she inspected the border area together with Marshal Pak Jong Chon.
Seoul has blamed Pyongyang for the Sept. 21 mine blasts, which injured three South Korean soldiers, but North Korea has rejected the South's claim that the mines were planted by the North on the southern side of the Military Demarcation Line.
"Our new counter means will get into the alert for duty at all the southern border line and the loudspeakers against the ROK will be on standby in a matter of days," the sister said, referring to South Korea by its official name -- the Republic of Korea.
"If they continue to wag their tongue, cast a damper on and insist obstinately on, the present ruling authorities will face the most horrible and distressing situation," Kim Yo Jong said, adding, "This is not a threat but a clear warning."
On Wednesday, she said in a separate statement that "the loudspeakers for psychological warfare" against South Korea will be "in operation along the whole border" by the end of October, according to KCNA.
Pyongyang has been stepping up efforts to plant landmines and install barbed wire on the northern side of the Demilitarized Zone, calling the South "the most hostile enemy state."
North Korea broadcast propaganda and blared disturbing sounds along the border between July 2024 and June last year in response to the resumption of South Korea's own border loudspeaker broadcasts after a six-year hiatus by then President Yoon Suk Yeol, who had adopted a hardline stance against Pyongyang.
