Kim Jong Un's sister rejects outreach by South Korea's new president
Kim Yo Jong's comments imply that North Korea - now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia - sees no need to resume diplomacy with South Korea and the US anytime soon.
Experts say she likely hopes to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington. 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, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.
It is North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June with a promise 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.
North Korea complains of South Korea-US military drills
North Korea has shunned talks with South Korea and the US 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 and declared a hostile two-state system on the Korean Peninsula to terminate relations with South Korea.
Kim Yo Jong called Lee's steps sincere efforts to develop ties, but said the new government still plots to stand in confrontation with North Korea.
She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-US military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
Lee said it's important to restore trust between the Koreas as he met Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and asked about his thought on the latest North Korean statement.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
16 minutes ago
- First Post
Indian delegation in Syria: First diplomatic visit since Al Sharaa toppled Assad regime
For the first time since opposition forces ousted the Assad dynasty in Syria, India has sent a delegation to hold talks with the country's new administration led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a leader with a jihadist past who is supported by Turkey. read more Suresh Kumar, the Director of the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) Division at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), holds talks with Syrian foreign minister Asaad Hassan Al-Sheibani in Damascus, Syria, on Monday, July 28, 2025. (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Syria) For the first time since the opposition forces ousted Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last year, India has sent a delegation to hold talks with the country's new administration led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a Turkey-supported Islamist leader who once headed a branch of Al-Qaeda. Last year, opposition forces led by Sharaa's Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) escalated their offensive in November. Within weeks, they reached the capital of Damascus, capturing it on December 8 and forcing Assad to flee. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD While there was no word from India on the meeting in Damascus, Syria's foreign ministry confirmed the meeting between Suresh Kumar, the Director of the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) Division at the Ministry of External Affairs, and Syrian foreign minister Asaad Hassan Al-Sheibani. 'The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Mr Asaad Hassan Al-Sheibani, received in the capital Damascus an Indian delegation headed by Mr Suresh Kumar, Director of the West Asia and North Africa Department at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. The meeting addressed issues of common interest and ways to enhance relations between the two countries in a manner that serves the interests of both peoples,' said the Syrian foreign ministry in a statement on X. There have been concerns about the new administration in Syria, owing to the jihadist past of its leader and group —the HTS— that he runs. Moreover, Sharaa's principal supporter, Turkey, has pursued an overtly anti-India agenda lately, supporting Pakistan not just diplomatically but also militarily. 'A beginning had to be made' While there was no official word, a person familiar with the matter told Hindustan Times that India sent a delegation as 'a beginning had to be made' at some point about a bilateral relationship with the new Syrian administration. 'A beginning had to be made and India had to register its presence. You have to open the door at some point,' the person said on condition of anonymity. With Assad, India had a comfortable relationship and Assad sided with India even on the issue of Kashmir on international platforms. India also regularly sent humanitarian support to Syria. Notably, India never closed the embassy in Damascus even as a civil war raged in the country. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In the meeting with Kumar, Syrian foreign minister Sheibani 'dealt with issues of mutual concern and ways of enhancing relations between the two countries in the interests of both peoples', according to Syria's state-owned SANA news agency. Beside the foreign minister, Kumar also met Syrian health minister Musab Al-Ali and the two sides discussed ways of enhancing health cooperation, particularly in the pharmaceutical industries and medical training fields, as per the news agency. The two sides discussed mechanism for implementing a scholarship for Syrian students, in addition to allocating a specialised engineering cooperation programme for government employees, the agency reported. Al-Ali said that Syria aspired to establish a 'strong partnership with India in the pharmaceutical industries and health technologies, which would contribute to supporting the national health sector and providing medicines', the agency reported. On his part, Kumar said that India will continue to fund specialised training courses for Syrian personnel, coordinate the training of Syrian doctors in Indian centers, and enhance cooperation in the fields of nursing, pharmaceutical industries, and pharmaceutical exports, the agency reported. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
16 minutes ago
- First Post
Boast and backlash: Counting Trump's ceasefire claims and India's unyielding denials
The latest denial came from the Indian government during the Lok Sabha debate on Operation Sindoor, firmly rejecting any US role in the India-Pakistan ceasefire and countering Donald Trump's repeated claims of brokering peace read more Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, during the Lok Sabha debate on Operation Sindoor on Monday, firmly dismissed suggestions that New Delhi's military pause against Pakistan was influenced by foreign pressure, calling such claims 'completely incorrect and baseless.' Without naming US President Donald Trump directly, Singh said military operations had ceased only after Indian forces had achieved their 'overall politico-military objectives.' He added that the decision followed a request from Pakistan's Director-General of Military Operations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'The objective of Operation Sindoor was to destroy the terror nurseries raised by Pakistan over the years,' Singh said, referencing the campaign launched after the Pahalgam terror attack. Singh's remarks come in the wake of a flurry of claims by Trump, who — between May 10 and July 28 — publicly took credit at least 20 times for brokering a ceasefire between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Every time Trump said he helped stop the conflict, India denied it. After Rajnath Singh, Jaishankar, during a debate on Operation Sindoor on Monday, also vehemently asserted that Washington did not play any role in ending the India-Pakistan conflict in May and said there was no phone call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump during those crucial weeks. 'I want to make two things very clear- one, at no stage, in any conversation with the United States, was there any linkage with trade and what was going on,' he said. 'Secondly, there was no talk between the Prime Minister and President Trump from the April 22 (on the day of Pahalgam attack) when President (Donald) Trump called up to convey his sympathy, and on June 17, when he called up the prime minister in Canada to explain why he could not meet,' Jaishankar added. On June 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarified to President Trump in a phone call that the United States had no role in brokering the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, and that there had been no talks about a US-India trade deal during the tensions. PM Modi also turned down Trump's invitation to stop in Washington, D.C., on his return from the G7 Summit in Canada, citing a prior commitment to visit Croatia on June 18. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Shedding light on the 35-minute conversation, which came at Trump's request, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said, 'PM Modi clearly told President Trump that during the entire course of events, at no point, and at no level, was there any discussion about a US-India trade deal or about US mediation between India and Pakistan.' This was the first conversation between the two leaders since India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, and came hours ahead of a meeting between Pakistan's Army Chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Trump. 'The Prime Minister said the talks regarding cessation of military action were held directly between India and Pakistan under the existing channels established between both militaries. It was done at Pakistan's request,' Misri further said. Trump was the first to announce the India-Pakistan ceasefire on social media, claiming credit for brokering the deal. He continued to repeat this claim in the following weeks, even as India consistently denied that the US had played any role in the agreement. Here's a list of statements by the US President on the India-Pakistan conflict so far: 10 May: 'After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE." 11 May: 'I am proud that the USA was able to help you arrive at this historic and heroic decision. While not even discussed, I am going to increase trade substantially with both of these great nations. Additionally, I will work with you both to see if, after a 'thousand years,' a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir.' 12 May: 'We stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war.' 13 May: '…My administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan. I used trade to a large extent… And they both have very powerful leaders, strong leaders.' 14 May: 'We convinced them… Let's go and make trade deals. If we can make trade deals, we like that much better than nuclear weapons.' 15 May: 'We talked to them about trade. Let's do trade instead of war. Pakistan was very happy with that and India was very happy with that… They've been fighting for about a 1000 years. I said I could settle that up.' 17 May: 'Those are major nuclear powers… It was getting deeper and more missiles. Everyone was stronger. Where the next one 's going to be, you know what? The N word. I think they were very close… I said we're going to talk about trade. We're going to do a lot of trade.' 22 May: 'If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India — we settled that whole thing. I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan.' 30 May: 'We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting. I believe that could have turned out into a nuclear disaster. We talk trade… We can't trade with people who are shooting at each other and potentially using nuclear weapons.' 31 May: 'We were able to stop potentially a nuclear war through trade as opposed through bullets. You know, normally they do it through bullets. We do it through trade. We had a very nasty potential war going on between Pakistan and India.' 06 June: 'We solved a big problem, a nuclear problem potentially with India and Pakistan. I talked about trade and said, we are not doing trade if you guys are going to be throwing bombs at each other. They both stopped.' 18 June: 'Two very smart people decided not to keep going with that war; that could have been a nuclear war.' 21 June: 'I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between India and Pakistan.' 25 June: 'India and Pakistan…I ended that with a series of phone calls on trade. I said if you're going to go fighting each other, we're not doing any trade deal. They said: I want to do the trade deal. We stopped the nuclear war." 27 June: 'India and Pakistan. That was going to be maybe nuclear… I said to Scott and Howard: cancel all deals with India and Pakistan. They're not trading with us because they're in a war.' 08 July: 'Very, very big one was India and Pakistan. We stopped that over trade. We said that we are not going to be dealing with you at all if you are gonna fight. They were maybe at a nuclear stage.' 15 July: 'India and Pakistan would have been a nuclear war within another week. I said, we ' re not going to talk to you about trade unless you get this thing settled. And they did.' 19 July: 'Planes were being shot out of there. I think five jets were shot down, actually. These are two serious nuclear countries. India and Pakistan were going at it… and we got it solved through trade. We said: you guys want to make a trade deal. We're not making a trade deal if you're going to be throwing around weapons, and maybe nuclear weapons.' 26 July: 'It (Cambodia-Thailand conflict) very much reminds me of the conflict between Pakistan and India, which was brought to a successful halt.' 28 July: 'We do a lot of trade with Thailand and Cambodia. Yet I'm reading that they're killing each other… I say this should be an easy one for me because I settled India and Pakistan… If I can use trade to do that, then it's my honour." With inputs from agencies
Hans India
an hour ago
- Hans India
Trump reaffirms commitment to safeguard Korean Peninsula in armistice anniversary message
Seoul: US President Donald Trump has reaffirmed his country's "steadfast" commitment to safeguarding the Korean Peninsula, underscoring the two countries' strong alliance in the face of "the evils of communism" in the region. Trump made the remarks in a message a day after South Korea marked the July 27 anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. In 2017, Trump proclaimed July 27 as the national day to honour the American troops who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War and had released presidential messages every year during his first term, Yonhap news agency reported. "Although the evils of communism still persist in Asia, American and South Korean forces remain united in an ironclad alliance to this day," Trump said in the message released by the White House on Monday (US time). "Guided by my Administration's foreign policy of peace through strength, we remain steadfastly committed to safeguarding the Korean Peninsula and working together for the noble causes of safety, stability, prosperity, and peace." More than 36,000 Americans were killed in the war that pitted United Nations-allied forces against an invading North Korea, backed by the Soviet Union. "We honour the patriots who fought and died in Korea so that freedom might endure both on our land and beyond our shores. We vow to rebuild our military, support our veterans, and stand strong against forces of tyranny," Trump said. Trump also recalled in the message the moment in June 2019 when he crossed the Demilitarised Zone separating the two Koreas for the first time as a sitting US president. Trump had a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un there. "My first Administration also maintained a maximum pressure campaign and enforced sanctions on North Korea to negotiate denuclearisation," he said.
