North Korean leader’s sister threatens ‘overwhelming’ response to US-South Korean military exercises

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jon-Un, said the country is ready to take “swift, overwhelming action” in response to joint US-South Korean military exercises elsewhere on the peninsula.

The US and South Korean soldiers trained together on Monday. The exercises involve the use of B-52 bombers, which are capable of firing a nuclear weapon, according to the Associated Press.

North Korea has previously tested its own missiles in response to US and South Korean military exercises.

“We are monitoring the restless military movements of the United States Armed Forces and the South Korean puppet army and are always on standby to take appropriate, prompt and overwhelming action at any time in our judgment,” Ms. Yo Jong said in a statement. on North Korea’s state media.

She claimed that the “frantic” US-South Korean military exercises could require North Korea to “deal with it”.

“The demonstrative military moves and rhetoric of the US and South Korea, which are so extremely frenetic that they cannot be overlooked, undoubtedly provide (North Korea) the conditions to be forced to do something to deal with it. go,” she said. .

North Korea’s top military command, the General Staff Department, claimed hours later that “the enemy” committed a “very serious military provocation” on Tuesday by firing artillery near the border town of Paju.

The GSD then demanded that the US and South Korea cease their military activities near the border. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the claims were nonsense and no artillery training was taking place in that region.

The US and South Korea are also on track to resume large-scale field exercises for the first time since 2018. The exercises were significantly scaled back after 2018 due to the stagnation of US-North Korean diplomacy efforts and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

North Korea is also running its military machine and conducted more missile tests last year than at any other time in modern history.

The isolated nation’s fiery rhetoric is also back in full force, with Ms. Yo Jong threatening to turn the entire Pacific into North Korea’s firing range in a statement she made last month.

She also said that if the US intercepted a North Korean ICBM, her brother could consider it a declaration of war. Ms. Yo Jong cited a report in South Korean media stating that the US would shoot down North Korean missiles if a test launch took place in the Pacific.

In the past, North Korean missiles have generally landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.