Kim Yo Jong insulted US President Joe Biden, during a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol...
Digital Desk: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong recently stated that her country will stage more provocative military displays in response to a new US-South Korean agreement to strengthen nuclear deterrence to counter the North's nuclear threat, which she claims demonstrates their "extreme" hostility towards Pyongyang.
While speaking of the threat Kim Yo Jong also insulted US President Joe Biden, who declared at a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday that any North Korean nuclear assault on the US or its allies would "result at the end of whatever regime" committed such acts.
Biden's meeting with Yoon in Washington came at a time when tensions on the Korean Peninsula were rising as the tempo of both North Korean weapons demonstrations and joint US-South Korean military drills escalated in a cycle of tit-for-tat.
North Korea has conducted about 100 missile tests since the beginning of 2022, including various displays of intercontinental ballistic missiles aimed to reach the US mainland and a flurry of short-range launches the North portrayed as simulated nuclear strikes on South Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is generally expected to escalate the ante in the next weeks or months as he accelerates a campaign aimed at securing the North's nuclear status and eventually extracting US economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
During their meeting, Biden and Yoon announced new nuclear deterrence efforts, including the docking of US nuclear-armed submarines in South Korea regularly for the first time in decades, as well as increased training between the two countries. They also agreed to prepare for bilateral presidential meetings in the case of a nuclear assault by North Korea, the development of a nuclear consultative committee, and better information exchange on nuclear and strategic weapons operation plans.
Kim Yo Jong said in remarks carried by state media that the US-South Korean deal showed the partners' "most hostile and aggressive will of action" against the North, putting regional peace and security in "more danger."
Kim, one of her brother's top foreign policy advisers, said the meeting reinforced the North's determination to improve its nuclear weapons capabilities. She emphasized the importance of the North perfecting the "second mission of the nuclear war deterrent," an apparent reference to the country's escalators nuclear doctrine, which calls for preemptive nuclear strikes in a variety of scenarios where it perceives its leadership to be under threat.
"When we consider that this expression was personally used by the president of the United States, our most hostile adversary," she continued, "it is threatening rhetoric for which he should be prepared for far too great an aftershock."
"The more the enemies are dead set on staging nuclear war exercises, and the more nuclear assets they deploy in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula, the stronger our right to self-defence will become in direct proportion to them."
North Korea has traditionally referred to the United States' regular military exercises with South Korea as invasion preparations, despite the allies' claims that the exercises are defensive.
Many experts believe Kim Jong Un is likely using his rivals' military drills as a pretext to advance his weapons programmes and cement his domestic leadership in the face of economic difficulties.
Faced with rising North Korean threats, Yoon has sought firmer guarantees from the US that it would use nuclear weapons rapidly and forcefully if the South was attacked by North Korea.
His administration has also increased military training with the US, including the allies' largest field exercises in years last month, as well as separate drills involving a US aircraft carrier battle group and modern aeroplanes like as nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and F-35 fighter fighters.
Kim Yo Jong did not elaborate on the North's plans in reaction to the conclusion of the US-South Korea summit. Her brother said this month that the country had created its first military surveillance satellite, which will be launched at an undefined date and will almost probably be viewed as a prohibited test of long-range missile technology by its adversaries.
Nuclear discussions between Washington and Pyongyang have been stalled since 2019 because of disputes over swapping the North's moves to wind down its nuclear weapons programme for the easing of harsh US-led sanctions.
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