Kim Jong Un's sister delivers chilling warning to US and South Korea

Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister warns US and South Korea any attempt to shoot down North Korea’s test missiles over the Pacific would be considered ‘a clear declaration of war’

• US and South Korea are gearing up for large scale coordinated military drills
• North Korea gave a chilling warning to the allies as it continues to test missiles

The sister of Kim Jong Un warned Tuesday that it would be a ‘clear declaration of war’ if North Korean missiles were shot down during their test launches over the Pacific Ocean.

The United States and South Korea have ramped up defence cooperation in the face of growing threats from nuclear-armed Pyongyang, which has conducted a wave of weapons tests in recent months.

North Korea has said its nuclear weapons and missile programmes are for self-defence, and has bristled over US-South Korea military exercises, describing them as rehearsals for an invasion.

‘It will be regarded as a clear declaration of war against the DPRK, in case such military response as interception takes place against our tests of strategic weapons,’ Kim Yo Jong said in a statement, using North Korea’s official name.

‘The Pacific Ocean does not belong to the dominium of the U.S. or Japan.’

This photo provided by the North Korean government shows the test-firing of what it says a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile

Image published by KCNA shows a strategic cruise missile launching drill staged at dawn in Kim Chaek City, North Hamgyong Province, North Korea, 23 February 2023

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, warned any attempts to intercept missile testing by US or South Korea will be considered an act of war

READ MORE: Kim Jong Un brings his daughter to launch of new housing project in Pyongyang amid rumours she is being primed as successor 

 

North Korea is ‘always on standby to take appropriate, quick and overwhelming action at any time’, she added in her statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

This month, the US and South Korean militaries will hold their largest joint drills in five years.

Ahead of those exercises, named Freedom Shield and scheduled for at least 10 days starting March 13, the allies held air drills this week featuring a nuclear-capable US B-52 heavy bomber.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, North Korea’s foreign ministry accused the United States of ‘intentionally’ ramping up tensions.

‘The recent joint air drill… clearly shows that the US scheme to use nuclear weapons against the DPRK is being carried forward at the level of an actual war,’ it said in a statement published by KCNA.

‘We express deep regret over the irresponsible and worrying muscle-flexing of the US and South Korea.’

Last year, Pyongyang declared itself an ‘irreversible’ nuclear power and fired a record-breaking number of missiles.

Kim Jong Un recently called for an ‘exponential’ increase in weapons production, including tactical nukes.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a party meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 1, 2023

An RC-12X Guardrail surveillance aircraft lands at U.S. Army base Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, 06 March 2023, as South Korea and the United States began a four-day crisis management exercise

Colonel Isaac Taylor (L) of the United Nations Command (UNC), Combined Forces Command (CFC), and United States Forces Korea (USFK), stands alongside Colonel Lee Sung-jun of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff during a press briefing about the 2023 Freedom Shield Exercises

North Korea has framed its missile tests and military drills as justified countermeasures following US-South Korea drills.

Last week, it called on the United Nations to urge a halt to these exercises, and reiterated that its nuclear weapons ensured the balance of power in the region.

South Korea is eager to reassure its increasingly nervous public about the US commitment to so-called extended deterrence, where US military assets, including nuclear weapons, serve to prevent attacks on allies.

Last month, a tabletop US-South Korea exercise at the Pentagon focused on responses to a nuclear attack by North Korea.

Pyongyang responded to that exercise by firing cruise missiles, and claimed that ramped-up US-South Korea drills ‘can be regarded as a declaration of war’.

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