North Korean leader’s sister warns of ‘terrible consequences’ amid South Korea-U.S. military drills

North Korean leader’s sister on Tuesday condemned the ongoing joint military drills between South Korea and the United States, warning of “unimaginably terrible consequences.”

Kim Yo-jong, a department director of the ruling party, issued the warning in a press statement a day after Seoul and Washington kicked off their annual springtime military exercise, the Freedom Shield, for an 11-day run.

“The muscle-flexing of the hostile forces near the areas of our state’s sovereignty and security may cause unimaginably terrible consequences,” Kim said in the statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Kim said the exercise took place “at a critical time when global security structure is collapsing rapidly and wars break out in different parts of the world due to the reckless acts of the outrageous international rogues.”

“No matter what justification is given or how the training elements are adjusted, the undeniable confrontational nature of these high-intensity, large-scale war exercises, colluding with the most hostile entities at our doorstep, remains unchanged,” Kim said. “We will ironcladly manage strategic threats to national and regional security through the responsible exercise of our deterrent power, including all available special means that are bound to be overwhelming.”

South Korea and the United States kicked off the Freedom Shield exercise, held annually every spring, on Monday. The Freedom Shield is  a defensive exercise designed to prepare for a possible Korean Peninsula contingency.
 
This year’s exercise will involve approximately 18,000 troops, a similar number to last year. However, field training exercises, involving actual military forces, are scheduled to be conducted a total of 22 times during the exercise, less than half the 51 exercises conducted in March last year.

BY LIM JEONG-WON, YONHAP [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]