[ad_1]
Government official and leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jung said the exercises were “self-destructive behaviors.”
North Korea’s powerful official and leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jung said that South Korea and the United States should pay the price for the annual joint military exercise that begins this week.
Kim also warned on Tuesday that North Korea would strengthen its preemptive strike capabilities more quickly, adding that she was authorized to issue a statement implying that the news came directly from her brother.
South Korea and the United States began preliminary training on Tuesday, and plan to conduct a larger-scale computer simulation exercise next week.
The exercise is expected to be held from August 16 to 26. After the sudden thawing of relations between South Korea and North Korea, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed in July to reconnect the hotline that was interrupted last year, leading to increased tension on the Korean peninsula.
The nuclear-armed North Korea’s response to the exercise could also undermine South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s efforts to reopen the joint liaison office that Pyongyang bombed last year and hold a summit as part of efforts to restore relations.
Kim Yo-jung said in a statement issued by the Korea Central News Agency that these exercises are “self-destructive behaviors and should be paid a high price because they threaten the safety of our people and further endanger the situation on the Korean peninsula.” “.
“They are the most vivid embodiment of the hostile policy of the United States [North Korea], Aimed at strangling our country by force,” she said.
A few weeks after agreeing to reopen the hotline, she accused South Korea of ”treacherous”.
US Department of Defense spokesman Martin Minas declined to comment on North Korea’s statement, saying that it is against policy to talk about training.
“Joint training activities are a bilateral decision between South Korea and the United States, and any decision will be an agreement between the two parties,” he said using the initials of the official name of South Korea.
A spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Defense also declined to comment on the preliminary exercises on Tuesday, saying that the two countries are still discussing the timing, scale and methods of conventional exercises.
The South Korean Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said in a statement that it will not guess North Korea’s intentions, but will be prepared for all possibilities.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of Korean Studies in Seoul, said that Pyongyang may be trying to gain the upper hand in future negotiations with South Korea and the United States.
“although [Kim] When it comes to’treacherous behavior’, her tone seems to be relatively restrained because she does not threaten the specific actions they might take as she did in the past,” he said.
As a legacy of the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, the United States stationed approximately 28,500 soldiers in South Korea. The Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace agreement, leaving the peninsula in a state of technical warfare.
In recent years, these exercises have been scaled back to facilitate negotiations aimed at lifting Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions.
But negotiations broke down in 2019. Although North Korea and the United States both expressed openness to diplomacy, both sides said that actions depend on each other.
King said that U.S. military actions have shown that Washington’s diplomatic remarks are a hypocritical cover for aggression on the peninsula. Only when the U.S. dismantles its military power in the south can peace be possible.
She said that North Korea will enhance its “absolute deterrence capabilities,” including “powerful preemptive strikes,” to respond to the ever-increasing US military threats.
[ad_2]
Source link