Seoul — North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and his influential sister Kim Yo Jong have warned that joint military exercises conducted by South Korea and the United States could lead to “unimaginably terrible consequences,” raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
In a statement released Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong described the annual springtime exercise Freedom Shield, which began Monday and will run until March 19, as a serious provocation. Around 18,000 South Korean troops are participating, though the number of U.S. forces involved has not been disclosed.
North Korea, which launched the Korean War in 1950 with a military invasion of its southern neighbor, has long condemned joint exercises as rehearsals for an attack on its territory. Kim Yo Jong, quoted by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, said such drills risk further destabilizing regional security amid global uncertainty.
Recently promoted to head the Workers’ Party General Affairs Department, Kim Yo Jong now holds a position analysts consider as influential as the party’s general secretary. Her warning followed remarks by her brother Kim Jong Un rejecting South Korea’s recent peace initiatives as “absurd and deceptive” and asserting that North Korea has “no dealings” with the South.
Kim Yo Jong framed the exercises as occurring at a sensitive time of global instability, arguing that international security structures are weakening rapidly and that conflicts are rising in multiple regions. She attributed the current tension to what she described as “reckless actions of international rogues.”
Pyongyang has also condemned the recent U.S.–Israel attacks on Iran as “illegal aggression,” claiming they reveal the United States’ “malicious nature.”
Despite decades of political and military hostility between the U.S. and North Korea, Washington has recently signaled a willingness to resume high-level talks with Pyongyang. Analysts have speculated about the potential for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un later this year.
Last month, Kim Jong Un indicated that if the United States formally recognized North Korea’s nuclear capability, the two nations could potentially “coexist,” marking a cautious diplomatic opening after years of stalled proposals.
