North Korea warned Sunday that “hostile” U.S.-South Korean military drills planned for later this month could seriously damage the recent push to improve relations between the two Koreas.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a powerful figure in the regime’s leadership, told the state-controlled news service KCNA that the planned drills “will become an unpleasant prelude to seriously hurting the will of the leaders of the North and South seeking to take the step toward rebuilding trust again and further clouding the path lying ahead for inter-Korean relations.”
Although U.S.-North Korean talks about the country’s secretive nuclear and ballistic missile programs have been at a standstill since President Biden took office, Seoul and Pyongyang revealed last week that they had agreed to restore a long-inactive hot line designed to minimize tensions on the heavily armed, divided peninsula.
It also was learned that Mr. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a longtime supporter of engagement with the North, had exchanged letters since the spring on possible ways to improve ties.
“Our government and military will closely watch whether South Korea will carry out their hostile war exercise once again or make a bold decision,” Ms. Kim added, according to a report in the South Korean Yonhap news service. “Hope or despair? The decision is not upon us.”
The annual U.S.-South Korean military drills became a major political football during the Trump administration. Former President Donald Trump suspended them as he used unprecedented personal diplomacy in pursuit of an elusive personal denuclearization deal with Mr. Kim.
Mr. Trump called the drills provocative and expensive, though U.S. military leaders warned that the lack of training could hurt readiness for the 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to defend against an attack from the North.
North Korea has long condemned the annual drills, insisting they are a rehearsal for a potential invasion of the North.
The Pentagon and South Korean military officials have been gauging how large the military exercises should be this year.