Tag: Kim Yo-jong

The tit-for-tat between the ROK and North Korea continues:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Sunday that South Korea will have to pay a “dear price” for sending propaganda leaflets across the border the previous day.

Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the central committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said “various kinds of political agitation leaflets and dirty things” were dropped by the South near the border and further inland.

“We strongly denounce the shameful and dirty acts of the ROK scum who committed the provocation of scattering anti-DPRK political and conspiratorial agitation things once again in disregard of our repeated warnings,” she said in a statement carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency, referring to South and North Korea by their formal names, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“There will be no house owner who hardly gets enraged at such dirty rubbish scattered in the clean yard, which even a mutt dislikes to touch,” she said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This would be the next logical step in escalation from North Korea. With that said they have already flown drones multiple times over South Korea in the past showing how hypocritical their claims against the ROK now are:

Inter-Korean tensions are escalating over propaganda leaflets, as North Korea threatened, Monday, to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to drop leaflets over Seoul. The North also reiterated its claim that the South Korean military recently sent leaflet-distributing drones into its territory.

“It would be interesting to see how they will bark if a drone appears in Seoul and scatters leaflets,” Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said in a statement via the North’s mouthpiece Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Noting a hypothetical situation, she said, “An unidentified drone appears over Seoul and scatters leaflets denouncing ‘the puppet Yoon,’” apparently referring to President Yoon Suk Yeol. “Our military, individual organizations, or any individual have not flown any drones, cannot confirm such actions, and do not consider it worth responding to.”

Her remarks appear to sarcastically criticize the South Korean military’s response to North Korea’s claims that the South sent a drone carrying anti-regime leaflets over Pyongyang earlier this month and that they found debris from a UAV of the same type operated by the South Korea’s military. In response to these claims, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, “We cannot verify (the claim), and the claim is not worth replying.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If anyone cares, Kim Yo-jong is out make nuclear threats again:

Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, vowed Tuesday to “continuously and limitlessly” bolster the North’s nuclear war deterrent against what it called U.S. threats, denouncing the arrival of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine in South Korea.

The remark came a day after the 7,800-ton USS Vermont entered a major naval base in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to replenish supplies and provide rest for crew members. 

“The DPRK’s nuclear war deterrent to cope with and contain various threats from outside is bound to be bolstered up both in quality and quantity continuously and limitlessly as the security of the state is constantly exposed to the U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail,” Kim said in a statement carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I suspect we will see North Korea launch their own loudspeaker broadcasts along with more trash attacks in the near future:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened Sunday to take “new responses” if South Korea keeps sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border and blasting loudspeaker broadcasts, calling it a “prelude to a very dangerous situation.”

The statement by Kim Yo-jong came after the South resumed propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts toward the North in retaliation against the North’s repeated sending of trash-filled balloons amid rising tensions in the inter-Korean border regions.

“Seoul’s politicians are continuing to create a new crisis environment … They are formalizing once again provocative behaviors by resuming loudspeaker provocations as a countermeasure to our challenging initiatives,” Kim said in the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim claimed that the North was going to stop sending the balloons early this week, but it ended up flying more in response to the anti-Pyongyang leafleting by North Korean defectors and activists in the South.

“Our counteraction (of sending balloons) was to end on the 9th, but the situation has changed … The loudspeaker broadcast provocation has finally begun in border areas. This is a prelude to a very dangerous situation,” she said.

“If South Korea chooses to engage in the leaflet-scattering and loudspeaker provocations across the border, without a doubt, they will witness our new response,” Kim said. Kim, however, did not specify what the new responses will be.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Anyone believe Kim Yo-jong’s claim:

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again denied Friday that her country has exported any weapons to Russia, as she labeled outside speculation on North Korea-Russian arms dealings as “the most absurd paradox.” The U.S., South Korea and others have steadfastly accused North Korea of supplying artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for advanced military technologies and economic aid.

Both North Korea and Russia have repeatedly dismissed that. Foreign experts believe North Korea’s recent series of artillery and short-range missile tests were meant to examine or advertise the weapons it was planning to sell to Russia. Kim Yo Jong called outside assessments on the North Korean-Russian dealings “the most absurd paradox which is not worth making any evaluation or interpretation.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I am wondering if the Japanese effort to start talks with North Korea was nothing more than political theater? The Japanese spokesman had to have known that his statements about discussing the abduction issue would lead to North Korea ending any possibility of bilateral talks which is what Kim Yo-jong did:

North Korea will refuse “any contact and negotiations” with Japan in the future, the powerful sister of the nuclear-armed country’s leader said Tuesday, just a day after she said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had requested a summit with her brother, Kim Jong Un.

In a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong pointed to the comments by the Japanese government’s top spokesman on Monday that Tokyo would never accept Pyongyang’s claim that the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s had already been resolved.

“Japan has no courage to change history, promote regional peace and stability and take the first step for the fresh DPRK-Japan relations,” she said, adding that a summit meeting between the two countries’ leaders was therefore “not a matter of concern” to Pyongyang.

“The DPRK government has clearly understood once again the attitude of Japan and, accordingly, the DPRK side will pay no attention to and reject any contact and negotiations with the Japanese side,” KCNA quoted her as saying, using the acronym for the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Japan is the one democratic nation that the North Koreans are looking to play nice with:

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered a rare opening for Japan, saying she saw a positive tone in comments from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is seeking a summit. Kim Yo Jong indicated a meeting of leaders would be possible if Japan “does not lay such a stumbling block as the already settled abduction issue,” she said in a press statement issued Thursday on state media.

“It is my opinion that if Japan makes a political decision to open up a new way of mending the relations through its courteous behavior and trustworthy action on the basis of courageously breaking with anachronistic hostility and unattainable desire and recognizing each other, the two countries can open up a new future together,” the statement carried on the Korean Central News Agency said.

The tone is a marked change from comments she issued nearly two years ago when she lumped Japan in with a bunch of “sinister” nations she accused of raising rabble at the United Nations to criticize Pyongyang for the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but what I suspect is that the Kim regime sees the growing relationship between Japan and South Korea. Because of this they probably want to play nice with Japan in order to try and separate them from South Korea.

For once I actually agree with Kim Yo-jong that anyone that thinks they will willingly give up their nuclear weapons is delusional:

The powerful sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned Monday that it would be “delusional” for the United States to believe that Pyongyang’s disarmament was possible.

Kim Yo-jong criticized Washington’s policies of strengthening its extended deterrence and military alliance with South Korea, stating that such actions would only make it difficult for Pyongyang to engage in dialogue, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“The U.S. is being delusional if it believes that it could halt our advancement and further achieve irreversible disarmament by temporarily halting joint military drills, suspending the deployment of strategic assets or reversibly easing sanctions etc,” Kim said. 

Kim also rejected U.S. calls for unconditional talks, dismissing them as a ploy to hinder North Korea’s progress.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.