The powerful sister of North Korea’s leader wants the United States and South Korea to stop joint training exercises. Kim Yo Jong issued a warning: North Korea is ready to take action against the two countries.
Kim Yo Jong’s threat came Tuesday—one day after the United States had flown a B-52 bomber over the Korean Peninsula. The flight was a show of strength against North Korea. It was part of U.S.-South Korean training drills.
Kim didn’t detail any possible actions in her statement. But North Korea has often test-launched missiles in response to U.S.-South Korean military drills. The North views such maneuvers as invasion rehearsals.
The South Korean Defense Ministry says the B-52 flight displays the allies’ ability to deter North Korean aggression.
“We keep our eye on the restless military moves by the U.S. forces and the South Korean puppet military and are always on standby to take appropriate, quick, and overwhelming action at any time,” Kim says.
Kim views the military action and rhetoric as “so extremely frantic as not to be overlooked.” She says they “undoubtedly provide [North Korea] with conditions for being forced to do something to cope with them.”
Hours after Kim’s statement, the General Staff of North Korea’s Korean People’s Army allegedly put its front-line units on alert. It also heightened surveillance after a supposed live-fire artillery drill by “the enemy” on Tuesday morning. North Korean officials describe that action as a “very grave military provocation.”
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff call the North Korean claim absurd. They deny the South’s military fired any artillery at the shooting range to which the North referred.
Last Friday, the South Korean and U.S. militaries announced they would conduct further training from March 13-23 and restore large-scale field exercises.
The allies have reinstated such drills after North Korea’s record number of missile tests last year—and the North’s threats of nuclear weapon use. (Read North Korea’s Newest Missile Test.)
On Tuesday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the flyover of the B-52 bomber a reckless provocation. The statement maintains “there is no guarantee that there will be no violent physical conflict” if U.S.-South Korean military drills continue.
In her statement, Kim Yo Jong cited a South Korean media report. The report alleges that the U.S. military plans to shoot down a North Korean ICBM if it is test-launched toward the Pacific. Kim warns that North Korea would consider that a declaration of war.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed. — Matthew 24:6
(Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, delivers a speech in Pyongyang, North Korea, in 2022. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
