The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un criticised Seoul on Monday for recent military drills near the border, saying South Korea was “definitely suicidal” and warning of a “terrible disaster”.
Seoul completely suspended a tension-reducing military pact last month after Pyongyang repeatedly sent balloons carrying garbage across the border, and resumed live-fire exercises on border islands and in the demilitarized zone dividing the Korean Peninsula.
Kim Yo Jong, a key spokesperson for the regime, said it was “an open war game (and) an unforgivable and blatant provocation that is further escalating the situation,” according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
He said South Korea’s border exercises were “suicidal mania that will bring them a terrible disaster.”
“It is clear to everyone … how risky the live-fire exercises carried out by the ROK military close to the DPRK border are,” Kim Yo Jong said, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.
If Seoul’s exercises violate the North’s sovereignty, Kim Yo Jong warned: “Our armed forces will immediately carry out their mission,” though she did not provide further details.
Relations between the two Koreas are at their worst in years, as Pyongyang steps up weapons testing while drawing closer to Russia.
Seoul and Washington have accused Pyongyang of supplying arms to Moscow for use in the war in Ukraine – which would violate sanctions imposed on both countries.
Earlier this year, nuclear-armed North Korea declared Seoul its main enemy, and dismantled agencies set up for liaison and diplomacy with Seoul, while beefing up security along its shared border.
Seoul’s military says North Korean troops have crossed the border three times in recent weeks, possibly by mistake, while working to lay landmines, clear vegetation and build anti-tank obstacles.
Kim Yo Jong also criticized recent trilateral exercises between the United States, South Korea and Japan, saying they were “the height of confrontational mania.”
“The war mongering clearly demonstrates that the US and other hostile forces have crossed the line in their haste to establish military hegemony in the region,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
