North’s Kim lauds South
Volume down on border propaganda
SEOUL, Feb 13, (AFP): North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has praised the welcome the South gave his sister and said it was important to build on the Olympics-driven momentum for dialogue on the divided peninsula.
Kim’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong — one of his closest confidantes — was part of the nuclear-armed North’s diplomatic delegation to the Games that made worldwide headlines.
She delivered his invitation for the South’s President Moon Jae-in to come to a summit in Pyongyang — which he did not immediately accept, saying the “right conditions” were needed.
The North is subject to multiple sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, and conducted dozens of weapons tests last year.
But the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang have triggered extraordinary scenes, with Moon and Kim cheering a unified Korean women’s ice hockey team together — along with the North’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam — and attending a concert by Pyongyang’s artistes.
Meanwhile, North Korea has lowered the volume of its border propaganda broadcasts at the inter-Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) since Friday’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony, a senior military official stationed at the border told Reuters on Tuesday.
North and South Korea have been using large speakers to send a sonic barrage of music, news and propaganda at each other since early 2016, when the South restarted its broadcasts in retaliation to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test that January.
“I still hear it, but it is much less than before,” said the official who is stationed on the southern side of the border and spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear if South Korea had also turned down the volume of its broadcasts.
Also: KUALA LUMPUR:
One year after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s halfbrother was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur’s airport, Malaysia is further downgrading once-close ties with Pyongyang, sources familiar with the government’s plans said.
Kim Jong Nam was assassinated on Feb 13, 2017 when two women smeared his face with VX nerve agent — which the UN lists as a weapon of mass destruction.