Sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, warned the Biden administration on Monday that it should refrain from "causing a stink" in the first place if it wants peace, media reported on Monday.
According to Reuters correspondent Josh Smith, Kim Yo Jong also slammed the ongoing military drills in neighboring South Korea, warning that if Seoul "dare[s] resort to more provocative acts, we may take a special measure of resolutely abrogating even the north-south military agreement."
"We take this opportunity to warn the new U.S. admin. trying hard to give off powder smell in our land," said Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, via KCNA. "If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step."
— Josh Smith (@joshjonsmith) March 15, 2021
"Perhaps, they are expecting 'flexible judgment' and 'understanding' from us but it is, indeed, ridiculous, impudent and stupid," Kim Yo Jong reportedly said concerning the military exercises.
"War drills and hostility can never go with dialogue and cooperation," she reportedly added.
The annual US-South Korea military drills kicked off last Monday, performed in the format of computer-simulated combined command post-training and which is expected to last until March 18. Pyongyang has long demanded Seoul and Washington to cease their military exercises, describing them as a sign of the US' hostile policy and a hindrance to normalization of intra-Korean relations, as well as North Korea's relationship with the US.
Meanwhile, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Asian and Pacific Affairs for the State Department Sung Kim said last week that Washington was going to complete its policy review on North Korea in the upcoming future. Later this week, US Secretaries of State and Defense, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, will embark on the first major foreign trip of Joe Biden’s presidency to cement alliances with Japan and South Korea.
Former US President Donald Trump held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, however, the two sides never achieved a breakthrough on denuclearization due to a deadlock on sanctions relief. The nuclear negotiations hit their impasse during 2019 summit in Hanoi, when Trump just walked out of the room, reportedly not willing to lift sanctions in the first place.
Due to economic difficulties brought by the US sanctions, Pyongyang announced in late 2019 that it would resume its nuclear arms program and tried to put more pressure on Washington. The South Korean military has said that in 2019 alone, Pyongyang carried out a total of 13 missile tests and showcased several new types of ballistic missiles, including a super-large multiple rocket launcher and an advanced submarine-launched ballistic missile.
