Kim Jong Un’s Sister Warns US-South Korea Agreement Will Lead to More Danger

Image Source: REUTERS

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has issued a warning to the United States and South Korea over their agreement to strengthen deterrence against North Korea. She warned that it will lead to “more serious danger” and stated that North Korea’s nuclear deterrent “should be brought to further perfection.” This is Pyongyang’s first response to the Washington summit where South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. counterpart Joe Biden issued a joint statement called the Washington Declaration, bolstering the U.S. nuclear umbrella over South Korea. The agreement includes the “regular deployment of strategic assets,” and the first South Korean port visit by a nuclear ballistic submarine in decades. The statement was issued as North Korea has defied years of punishing sanctions to continue work on its banned nuclear and missile programs, and last year declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power, effectively ending the possibility of denuclearization talks. Kim Yo Jong’s statement indicated military tensions around the Korean Peninsula could escalate dramatically to a level similar from 2017, which was a time of heightened military rhetoric between the United States and North Korea. She also criticized Joe Biden’s age, calling him “an old man with no future” and criticized South Korean President Yoon as a “fool.”

Re-reported from the story originally published in https://www.japantimes.co.jp/