The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un threatened on Monday to retaliate against joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, Pyongyang said.
After firing two ballistic missiles on Monday morning (shortly before midnight this Sunday, French time), North Korea directly threatened Seoul and Washington.
The frequency of using the Pacific as a firing range depends on the type of action of the American forces,” said Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong-Un in a statement published by the official KCNA agency.
North Korea praised its soldiers for carrying out the “sudden firing exercise” on Saturday, but South Korean analysts pointed out that the nine-hour delay between the order and the launch was not particularly fast.
Kim Yo Jong dismissed such criticism as “an attempt to underestimate the readiness of the DPRK’s ballistic forces”.
Condemned by the UN
For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned North Korea’s actions over the weekend, calling on Pyongyang to stop these “acts of provocation”, his spokesman said on Sunday.
“The Secretary General strongly condemns the launch, again, of an intercontinental range ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” said Stéphane Dujarric in a press release published on Sunday.
