Kim Jong Un's Sister: The US-South Korea-Japan Exercises Are a Reckless Display of Power That Will Lead to "Bad Outcomes"

SadaNews - Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, described the joint military exercises that the United States intends to conduct with Japan and South Korea as a "reckless display of power" that will lead to "bad outcomes."

These exercises, scheduled from Monday to Friday, include naval and air drills near South Korea's Jeju Island, along with a virtual training session between Seoul and Washington focusing on integrating military assets, with about 28,000 US troops stationed in South Korea.

In a statement published by the official Korean news agency, Kim Yo Jong criticized these drills, calling them a "dangerous idea," asserting that "the reckless show of force in real operations near the borders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in the wrong place, will inevitably lead to bad outcomes."

Pyongyang views these joint exercises as preparations for an invasion. Kim Yo Jong's remarks come after her brother reaffirmed the country's commitment to strengthen its nuclear arsenal during a visit to a military center, maintaining a steadfast position since the failure of the 2019 summit with Washington to abandon nuclear weapons.

The war in Ukraine is seen as having provided Kim Jong Un with a political boost, having gained crucial Russian support in exchange for sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Moscow. This cooperation culminated in a mutual defense agreement signed last year during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Pyongyang.

The joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, sometimes with Japanese participation, are one of the main points of tension with North Korea. Pyongyang considers these drills as practical preparations for an invasion, while Washington and Seoul describe them as purely defensive aimed at raising readiness against any nuclear or missile threat from the north.

Tensions have particularly escalated after the failure of the 2019 Hanoi summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, with North Korea declaring that it would not give up its nuclear weapons. Since then, Pyongyang has intensified its missile and nuclear tests, alongside the ongoing US-South Korea exercises.