Seoul:
The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un criticized Seoul on Monday for recent military exercises near the border, saying the South must be “suicidal” and warning of a “terrible disaster.”
After Pyongyang sent several barrages of trash-carrying balloons across the border, Seoul last month fully suspended a military agreement to reduce tension and resumed live-fire exercises on border islands and in the demilitarized zone dividing the Korean Peninsula.
Kim Yo Jong, who is a key spokesperson for the regime, said this was “an undisguised war game (and) an inexcusable and explicit provocation that aggravates the situation,” according to a statement carried by the official Central News Agency. from Korea.
South Korea’s border drills were “suicidal hysteria, for which they will have to endure a terrible disaster,” he added.
Kim Yo Jong said it was “clear to everyone… the risk of the above-mentioned reckless live ammunition firing exercises of the South Korean army approaching the DPRK border”, referring to the South by its official name, Republic from Korea.
If Seoul’s exercises violate the North’s sovereignty, Kim Yo Jong warned: “our armed forces will immediately carry out their mission”, without giving further details.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in recent years, with Pyongyang intensifying weapons tests as it moves ever closer to Russia.
Seoul and Washington accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Moscow for use in the war in Ukraine – which would violate a series of sanctions imposed on both countries.
Earlier this year, the nuclear-armed North declared Seoul its main enemy and scrapped agencies aimed at outreach and diplomacy with Seoul while increasing security along the shared border.
North Korean soldiers have crossed the border three times in recent weeks, probably accidentally, the Seoul military says, as they work to lay mines, clear foliage and build likely anti-tank barriers.
Kim Yo Jong also criticized recent trilateral exercises between the United States, South Korea and Japan, saying they were “the height of confrontational hysteria.”
“The beat of the drums of war clearly showed that the hasty maneuvers of the US and other hostile forces for military hegemony in the region have crossed the red line,” he added.
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