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Kim Jong Un's sister offers a ‘word of advice’ to US administration

‘The South Korean government yet again chose the 'March of War,’ she said

NORTHKOREA-POLITICS/SUCCESSION (File) Kim Yo Jong | Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister Kim Yo Jong criticised the US and South Korea for conducting joint military exercises. Kim Yo-Jong’s warning comes a day before top US officials are due to arrive in Seoul. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Japan on Monday on their first overseas trip, aimed at rallying military alliances as a bulwark against China and cementing a united front against the nuclear-armed North, AFP reports. 

Kim Yo Jong’s statement from her offering “a word of advice to the new administration of the United States that is struggling to spread the smell of gunpowder on our land,” was carried in Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper. "If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step,” Kim Yo Jong said. North Korea hasn’t acknowledged Biden’s win yet. The US and North Korea remain at loggerheads over North Korea refusing to roll back its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. 

Criticising the South’s joint military exercises with the US, Kim Yo Jong said, "The South Korean government yet again chose the 'March of War', the 'March of Crisis'."

Kim Yo Jong is a trusted adviser to her brother Kim Jong Un. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin have arrived in Tokyo and will be consulting with both Tokyo and Seoul on the US policy towards the North and its policy towards China. 

Shin Beom-chul, a researcher at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy told AFP, “North Korea has judged that the US will not offer enough concessions and so has released this statement ahead of Blinken and Austin's visit to Seoul.” 

During his election campaign, Biden called Kim Jong Un a thug and said that before the US and UN could roll back sanctions, North Korea should rollback on its nuclear weapons program. 

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