The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a powerful official, Kim Yo-jung, said that South Korea and the United States should pay the price for the annual joint military exercises that begin this week.
Kim Yo-jung warned on the 9th that “North Korea will speed up its efforts to strengthen its pre-emptive strike capability”. She added that she was granted the power to make the above statement, implying that it was a direct signal from Kim Jong-un. .
South Korea and the United States launched preliminary military training on the 10th, and will launch a larger-scale computer-simulated military exercise next week.
The US-South Korea joint military exercise, which is expected to take place from August 16 to 26, has led to an increase in tension on the Korean peninsula. Prior to this, the relationship between North Korea and South Korea was suddenly unfrozen in July this year, and the two sides agreed to reconnect the hotline that was cut off last year.
The Ministry of Unification and the Ministry of National Defense of South Korea stated on the afternoon of the 10th that North Korea did not answer the routine calls of the DPRK-South Korea hotline a few hours after Kim Yo-jung made the above-mentioned speech. It should be pointed out that the two countries usually contact the hotline twice a day, and in the morning, North Korean officials also answered the hotline from the South Korean military and from the Ministry of Unification, which handles inter-Korean relations. .
The reaction of the nuclear-armed North Korea to the US-South Korea joint military exercise may undermine South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s efforts to restart the joint liaison office that was bombed by North Korea last year and to convene a summit between the two countries to restore bilateral relations.
In a statement issued by the Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yoo-jung pointed out that the exercise was “an act of self-destruction, and both sides of the exercise should pay the price for it, because they threaten the safety of our people and further threaten the situation on the Korean peninsula.” “.
Kim Yo-jung said, “They are the most concentrated manifestation of the U.S.’s attempt to use force to stifle our country’s hostile policy towards North Korea. They are also self-destructive acts that threaten the safety of our people and further deteriorate the situation on the Korean Peninsula. They will never be welcomed. And it will pay the price.”
A few weeks after agreeing to reopen the Korean hotline, Kim Yoo-jung accused South Korea of ”treacherous”.
US Department of Defense spokesman Martin Minas declined to comment on North Korea’s statement. He also emphasized that remarks on training activities are against US policy.
The spokesperson pointed out that “joint training activities are a bilateral decision of the United States and South Korea. Therefore, any decision will be a joint agreement.”
A spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Defense also declined to comment on the preliminary military training activities. He said on the 10th that the two countries are still discussing the timing, scale, and methods of regular exercises.
The South Korean Unification Ministry, which is responsible for handling relations between South Korea and North Korea, said in a statement that it will not speculate on North Korea’s intention to take the above-mentioned measures, but will be prepared for all possibilities.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul University of Korean Studies, said that North Korea may try to use this move to gain the upper hand in future negotiations with South Korea and the United States.
He also pointed out, “Although Kim Yo-jung mentioned’treacherous behavior,’ her tone seemed to be relatively restrained and did not threaten specific actions that might be taken as in the past.”
As a legacy of the Korean War from 1950-1953, the United States deployed nearly 28,500 soldiers in South Korea. The above-mentioned war ended with an armistice agreement rather than a peace agreement, thus putting the Korean peninsula in a state of war technically.
In recent years, the scale of joint military exercises has been reduced in order to facilitate negotiations on the lifting of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs in exchange for the lifting of sanctions by the United States.
Although the relevant negotiations have broken down in 2019, both North Korea and the United States have expressed their willingness to adopt diplomatic means to resolve the issue. However, both sides have expressed their need to see whether the other party takes action.
Kim Yo-jung said that the U.S. military actions have shown that the “diplomatic contacts” and “dialogs without preconditions” mentioned by the U.S. government are merely intended to conceal its aggressive hypocrisy. Only with military strength and weaponry can peace on the Korean peninsula be achieved.
She also stated that North Korea will “further and rapidly strengthen its absolute deterrence to completely crush the ever-increasing military threat of the United States,” including “the most powerful preemptive strike capability.”
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