Seoul, March 16, (dpa/GNA) – Ahead of the new US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to South Korea, Pyongyang has issued a warning to the allied countries condemning their joint military exercises.
In a statement carried by state news agency KCNA on Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, threatened to withdraw from a 2018 military agreement and accused the new administration in Washington of causing trouble.
“We take this opportunity to warn the new U.S. administration trying hard to give off powder smell in our land,” Kim Yo Jong was quoted as saying.
“If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.”
The armed forces of the US and South Korea began their spring military drills last week, which have been scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing diplomacy disputes over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programme.
Pyongyang has previously slammed similar manoeuvres as being part of plans to invade North Korea. Both the US and South Korea deny that is the case.
“It is the conclusion drawn by us once again that we have nothing to talk [about] with them,” Kim Yo Jong said, according to KCNA.
“War drill and hostility can never go with dialogue and cooperation.”
Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin are expected to travel from Japan to South Korea on Wednesday.
GNA