The North Korean leader's powerful sister Kim Yo Jong said peace overtures being made by South Korea's new liberal government were "deception" and denied Pyongyang had taken reciprocal action, state news agency KCNA reported on Thursday.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has dismissed South Korean claims that North Korea is removing loudspeakers along the inter-Korean border.

Putin during the call on Tuesday praised the “bravery, heroism and self-sacrificing spirit” displayed by North Korean troops as they fought with Russian forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region,