Tag: Kim Yo-jong

This should not be surprising that the North Koreans are making bold threats they likely won’t or can’t carry out:

Anchor: The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued another warning just several hours after claiming that a U.S. military reconnaissance plane repeatedly violated the North’s airspace. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, on its part, urged Pyongyang to put a stop to such false claims that heighten military tensions.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.

Report: Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North’s leader, warned on Tuesday that U.S. forces will face a “very critical flight” if they continue with what she termed an “illegal intrusion.”

She issued the warning in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) as she said that she will act “upon authorization” if a U.S. spy plane again violates the North’s exclusive economic zone(EEZ).

The warning came just nine hours after Kim accused a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft of intruding into the zone over waters east of Tongchon of Kangwon Province and waters southeast of Uljin County in North Gyeongsang Province between 5:15 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Monday.

In a separate statement issued under the name of the defense ministry spokesperson, the reclusive state repeated Kim’s claims and warned that it can shoot down U.S. planes.

KBS World

You can read more at the link.

I wonder what made up airspace boundaries Kim Yo-jong is claiming this aircraft violated?:

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Monday claimed US reconnaissance aircraft intruded in the country’s airspace.

Kim issued a statement alleging that a US spy aircraft intruded in the North’s eastern airspace twice at around 5 a.m. and 8:50 a.m., respectively, on the same day.

In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, she said the US is “engaging in a serious military provocation by conducting aerial surveillance.”

Kim Yo-jong added that the North will not respond directly to the US reconnaissance activities outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone, but warned that it will take “decisive action” if the US military again crosses its maritime military demarcation line.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s military rejected the North’s claim of its airspace being violated as “not true” and described flights by US aerial surveillance assets around the peninsula as part of regular surveillance activities.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

North Korea has officially responded to the US-ROK summit last week where President Biden said the regime would be destroyed if they used nuclear weapons. None of these insults and threats coming from Kim Yo-jong should be surprising in response considering North Korea’s past history of insulting US and ROK presidents:

In her comments published on state media, Kim Yo Jong said the U.S.-South Korean agreement reflected the allies’ “most hostile and aggressive will of action” against the North and will push regional peace and security into “more serious danger.”

Kim, who is one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, said the summit further strengthened the North’s conviction to enhance its nuclear arms capabilities. She said it would be especially important for the North to perfect the “second mission of the nuclear war deterrent,” in an apparent reference to the country’s escalatory nuclear doctrine that calls for preemptive nuclear strikes over a broad range of scenarios where it may perceive its leadership as under threat.

She lashed out at Biden over his blunt warning that North Korean nuclear aggression would result in the end of its regime, calling him senile and “too miscalculating and irresponsibly brave.” However, she said the North wouldn’t simply dismiss his words as a “nonsensical remark from the person in his dotage.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It is a bit ironic that Kim Yo-jong is criticizing Zelenskiy for possibly pursuing nuclear weapons when the North Koreans know better than anyone how much they ensure regime security. If Ukraine had its own nuclear weapons deterrent the Russians would have likely never had invaded:

Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday of “gambling” with his country’s destiny by talking about developing nuclear weapons or placing U.S. nukes in Ukraine.

Kim, vice department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, also accused the Ukrainian authorities of being “seized with the incurable megalomania that (they) can defeat Russia,” and “incurring a nuclear disaster threatening their existence.”

“Zelenskiy’s talk about the introduction of U.S. nuclear weapons and the independent development of nuclear weapons is a manifestation of his very dangerous political ambition to prolong his remaining days at any cost by gambling with the destiny of his country and people,” she said in an English-language statement carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Kim Yo-jong is out making wild threats as usual before next weeks US-ROK Freedom Shield exercise:

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, warned Tuesday the North is ready to take “overwhelming” actions against military activities by the United States and South Korea, as its rivals are staging joint military drills involving American strategic assets.

Kim also warned the North will regard any U.S. attempt to intercept a missile that it will fire as a “clear declaration of war” against the reclusive nation, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“As already clarified, we keep our eye on the restless military moves by the U.S. forces and the south Korean puppet military and are always on standby to take appropriate, quick and overwhelming action at any time according to our judgment,” Kim said in an English-language statement carried by the state-run media.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but all the U.S. is only going to intercept a missile if it fired at areas that threaten U.S. or allied territory. The U.S. Aegis ships and THAAD batteries provide terminal missile defense which means it does intercepts while the threat missile is descending from the atmosphere. This means the U.S. would need to know the area where the missile is descending to shoot it down. That is why these assets are located in areas that military commanders want protected such as the THAAD batteries in South Korea and Guam.

The U.S. also has the GMD system with interceptors located in Alaska and California to protect the U.S. homeland. If North Korea fires a missile any where near the U.S. homeland of course it will be intercepted.

I wonder if this a threat to fire missiles over Japan again into the greater Pacific Ocean?:

Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, again blamed South Korea and the U.S. for fueling tensions on the peninsula with their plans for combined military exercises.

“The frequency of using the Pacific as our firing range depends upon the U.S.,” she said in a statement through KCNA. 

She added that North Korea is closely observing the movements of U.S. strategic assets, vowing to take “corresponding counteraction” to what it deems as a threat to its security.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The bad cop of North Korea is back at it blasting South Korea:

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday blasted South Koreans who questioned Pyongyang’s reconnaissance capabilities in response to its launch of a test satellite in a statement carried by state-controlled media on Tuesday.    
   
Kim Yo-jong, who serves as deputy director of the ruling Workers’ Party propaganda department, also warned that the regime would soon conduct a long-distance missile launch to silence critics who doubt the regime’s ability to launch a nuclear weapon that can re-enter the atmosphere without disintegrating, according to Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency.  
   
In her vitriolic statement, the North Korean leader’s sister said that Sunday’s spy satellite test involved two missiles, and that the first was intended “only to send signals to the transmitter and test whether the ground control station could trace and receive them.” 

Kim also bristled at comments by South Korean defense analysts who said the low-resolution images of Seoul and Incheon taken from the North Korean test satellite demonstrated the shortcomings of North Korean reconnaissance technology.  
   
“I really want to slap these bastards who are rattling on but don’t know where to start,” the KCNA reported Kim as saying.

Joong Ang Ilbo

Here is her most interesting comment which I said earlier was the real reason for their satellite launch rhetoric:

“It seems others want to disparage our strategic weapon capabilities by saying it can’t be demonstrated through a lofted-angle launch and must be proven through a normal-angle launch,” she said, adding that the latter was “something that may happen soon.” 

The spy satellite launch claims by the Kim regime is to set conditions to test an ICBM over Japan and claim it is a space launch. This gives their defenders in Moscow and Beijing a reason to defend them after they conduct a thinly veiled ICBM test at a nominal trajectory unlike their prior tests which were all lofted trajectories. This will further inflame tensions which is what they want while further testing their ICBM technologies.

Here is a new book I will need to check out:

Sung-Yoon Lee, the Kim Koo-Korea Foundation professor in Korean Studies and assistant professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University near Boston, said that Kim Yo-jong has been more visible and empowered to speak on behalf of her brother since 2020. 

“She is Kim Jong-un’s most trusted aide, adviser, deputy, spokesperson, attack dog and confidante,” he said in a recent email interview with The Korea Times. “In their body language when they are in close proximity, I see genuine mutual trust and affection. She is not a mere ‘secretary.'” 

He said now is the time for the world to pay greater attention to the ambitious younger Kim because of her growing influence in her country. 

Her multiple crucial roles in the North ― as the deputy director of the Workers’ Party’s Publicity and Information Department, alternate member of the Politburo and member of the State Affairs Commission, among others ― have convinced Lee to believe that Kim Yo-jong could lead the country in case her brother is incapacitated for any reason. 

If this happens, he said, Kim Yo-jong will succeed her brother to become the supreme leader of the impoverished state because she is the only adult who is part of the Mount Paektu bloodline, which refers to the three-generation lineage of North Korea’s leadership, descending from founder Kim Il-sung. “There is no doubt that Yo-jong is leadership material,” said Lee. 

Kim Jong-un is believed to have children, although no further details about them are known, but they are too young to become leaders, said Lee. 

He ruled out Kim Jong-un’s brother Jong-chol from the possible successor list. 

“Kim Jong-chol has stayed out of public view since Jong-un ascended to the throne in the wake of their father’s death in December 2011. Jong-chol has long been known to harbor no interest in politics, whereas Yo-jong has been known since her childhood to be ambitious and bossy,” he said. “More importantly, Yo-jong has participated very visibly in policymaking at least since February 2018 when she visited South Korea as her brother’s special envoy.” 

Lee, an expert on North Korea’s leadership, is the author of the new book, “The Sister,” which unravels the rise of Kim Yo-jong. The book will be published on June 15 next year.
“I do reveal a few facts of policy relevance in my book,” he said. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Hard to believe anything that comes from the Kim regime when these are the people that can invent the flimsiest of excuses to launch provocations:

 The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said South Korea is no match for her nuclear-armed country, as she reiterated Pyongyang’s position that Seoul is not a “principal enemy,” according to state media Tuesday.

Kim Yo-jong again took issue with the South Korean defense chief’s talk in public last week of his troops’ “preemptive strike” capabilities, boasting repeatedly about Pyongyang’s nuclear combat force.

Kim, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea who is known to be in charge of inter-Korean affairs, described the minister’s remarks as an “irretrievable very big mistake.” 

“If anyone does not provoke us, we will never strike it before anything else,” she said in her second press statement in two days carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

“We will not fire even a single bullet or shell toward South Korea. It is because we do not regard it as match for our armed forces,” Kim added, emphasizing once again that the North is a nuclear weapons state. 

“In other words, it means that unless the South Korean army takes any military action against our state, it will not be regarded as a target of our attack,” she said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.