North Korea warned the United States and South Korea against proceeding with their annual joint military drills, as the allies began an 11-day exercise this week and war continues in the Middle East.
In a statement Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, criticized the drills at what she called a perilous moment for global security. She said that “any challenge to the safety of our Republic” would bring “terrible consequences,” according to the statement reported by the Associated Press.
The comments came a day after the allies started their Freedom Shield exercise, which includes thousands of troops, AP reported. Freedom Shield is described as one of two annual command post exercises conducted by the militaries of the United States and South Korea, and it is largely computer-simulated, designed to test joint operational capabilities while incorporating evolving war scenarios and security challenges.
Kim Yo Jong said the drills undermine regional stability and pointed to what she characterized as a rapidly collapsing global security structure in which wars break out in different parts of the world due to “reckless acts of outrageous international rogues.” She did not directly refer to the Iran war in the statement, AP said, but she made the timing and broader security environment part of her criticism.
While addressing North Korea’s nuclear program, Kim Yo Jong said the country would continue to bolster its “destructive power” against what it views as external threats. She also said North Korea would “constantly and repeatedly convince the enemies of our war deterrence and its fatality,” AP reported, linking the messaging to the allies’ exercises.
North Korea has long portrayed the U.S.-South Korea joint drills as invasion rehearsals and has sometimes cited them as a pretext for ramping up military demonstrations or weapons testing, while the allies say the exercises are defensive in nature, AP reported.
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, meanwhile, acknowledged at a Cabinet meeting that some U.S. air defense weapons based in South Korea could be relocated. He said any such move would not seriously undermine South Korea’s defenses against North Korea, AP reported, adding that “we cannot fully control the situation according to our wishes.”
Lee’s remarks followed media speculation that the United States was moving some Patriot missile defense systems and other equipment from South Korea to support operations in the Middle East. South Korea said it opposed such moves, AP reported, but Lee said they remained “an undeniable reality.”
Separately, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it believes train services between Pyongyang and Beijing will resume this week for the first time in six years, after being suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministry said rail operations between border towns were resumed earlier mainly for trade after North Korea began easing border restrictions in 2022, and it said it remains unclear whether renewed services between the capitals would lead to increased exchanges.
As Kim Yo Jong tied the drills to wider security risks and North Korea’s deterrence posture, Kim Jong Un’s foreign policy has increasingly centered on a new Cold War theme, AP reported. Pyongyang and Tehran backed Russia in its war in Ukraine, and North Korea has also been accused of supplying Russia with military equipment and of sending thousands of soldiers to fight alongside Russian forces.