Seoul:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister criticized Seoul on Monday for recent military exercises on the border, saying the South should be “suicidal” and warning of a “terrible disaster.”
After Pyongyang sent multiple barrages of waste-carrying balloons across the border, Seoul last month completely suspended a tension-lowering military agreement and resumed firing exercises on border islands and near the demilitarized zone dividing the Korean Peninsula.
Kim Yo Jong, a key regime spokesman, said this was “an undisguised war game (and) an unforgivable and explicit provocation that aggravates the situation,” according to a statement from the official Korean Central News Agency.
South Korea’s border exercises were “suicidal hysteria, for which they will have to experience a terrible disaster,” she added.
Kim Yo Jong said it was “clear to everyone… how risky the above-mentioned reckless shooting exercises with live ammunition of the ROK military are getting closer to the DPRK border,” referring to the South 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,” without providing further details.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang stepping up weapons tests as it draws closer to Russia.
Seoul and Washington have accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Moscow for use in the war in Ukraine – which would violate a slew of sanctions on both countries.
Earlier this year, the nuclear-armed North declared Seoul its primary enemy and jettisoned agencies intended for outreach and diplomacy with Seoul while beefing up security along the shared border.
North Korean soldiers have crossed the border three times in recent weeks, probably by accident, Seoul’s military said, as they worked to lay mines, clear foliage and build likely anti-tank barriers.
Kim Yo Jong also criticized the recent trilateral exercises between the United States, South Korea and Japan, saying they were “the height of confrontational hysteria.”
“The drumbeats of war clearly showed that the rash maneuvers of the US and other hostile forces for military hegemony in the region have crossed the red line,” she added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)