The North Korean leader's influential sister on Thursday rebuffed a recent reconciliatory overture by South Korea as a "pipedream," denying Seoul's military claim that the North has removed some propaganda loudspeakers targeting Seoul along the inter-Korean border.

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

North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea's military said Saturday, days after Seoul's new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier.