Pyongyang: In a fiery statement as usual, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister Kim Yo Jong warned South Korea of a "horrible disaster" if the country flies drones over Pyongyang. She also lambasted the South Korean military over its response to the North's claim that South Korean drones entered the sky of the capital city, according to state-run media KCNA.
The incident unravelled on Friday when North Korea's foreign ministry accused South Korea of sending drones into Pyongyang at night this week and asserted that the intrusion demanded retaliatory action. In response, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not confirm the North's accusations.
"The fact that the means which carried the leaflets is the very drones is the core of the seriousness of the recent incident," Kim Yo Jong said, referring to anti-North Korea leaflets. Kim said the blame lies with the South Korean military if it failed to identify drones sent by a non-governmental organisation crossing the border.
"The most childish Republic of Korea which is utterly ignorant is resorting to a stereotyped method to suit to its inborn nature in order to evade the responsibility for the recent drone intrusion case... It is a miscalculation if the military thinks that it can easily pass through the crucial infringement upon the sovereignty of our state, even with impunity though the military impudently asserts that they did not do it, and avoid the eyes of concern of the international community," she was quoted as saying by KCNA.
Kim Yo Jong further accused South Korea of trying hard to distort the truth and deceive people and promised to take a strong retaliatory action against the drone intrusion. "The moment that a drone of the ROK is discovered in the sky over our capital city once again will certainly lead to a horrible disaster. Personally, I wish that such a thing will not happen," she added.
North Korea has been floating thousands of balloons with trash attached into the South since May, exacerbating tensions between the two countries. Pyongyang says they are a response to some activists and North Korean defectors in South Korea who fly balloons into the North carrying aid parcels and leaflets criticising leader Kim Jong Un.
North-South Korea tensions
KCNA distributed photos, including ones showing a blurry, triangular object labelled as a "drone" dropping another object labelled as "bundle of leaflets". One image also showed a cloud of small objects that was labelled as "scattered leaflets." Another photo showed black, yellow and white leaflets comparing the economic situation in the South to the impoverished North and criticising Kim Jong Un by name.
Animosities between the Koreas are at the worst point in years with Kim's provocative run of missile tests and the South Korean-US military exercises intensifying in a cycle of tit-for-tat. All communication channels and exchange programmes between the rivals have remained stalled since 2019, when a US-North Korea diplomatic effort collapsed.
Earlier, Kim Jong Un threatened to use nuclear weapons to 'destroy' its arch-rival South Korea permanently if its sovereignty was breached, according to state-run media, after the South's leader threatened to end Kim's regime if he attempted to use nuclear weapons. The exchange of such heated remarks, while nothing new, came amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang's continuation of missile tests and disclosure of a nuclear facility.
Kim criticised South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for threatening to end the North Korean regime at a military day event on Tuesday, saying the comment showed which side was destroying regional security and peace. He said his country would not hesitate to use all offensive forces if the enemy attempted to encroach on its sovereignty.
Kim said Yoon "bragged about overwhelming counteraction of military muscle at the doorstep of the state possessed of nuclear weapons and it was a great irony that caused the suspicion of being an abnormal man," according to the Korean Central News Agency. He said if the enemy "seized with extreme foolishness and recklessness" attempted to breach North Korea, the "permanent existence of Seoul and the Republic of Korea would be impossible".
(with agency input)
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