The powerful sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un threatened retaliatory measures against joint military exercises between the US and South Korea on Monday, Pyongyang said.
After launching two ballistic missiles on Monday morning (just before midnight this Sunday French time), North Korea directly threatened Seoul and Washington.
The frequency with which the Pacific is used as a firing range depends on the nature of the deployment of American forces,” Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong-Un, said in a statement released by the official KCNA agency.
North Korea praised its soldiers for conducting Saturday’s “sudden fire exercise,” but South Korean analysts pointed out that the nine-hour delay between the order and the launch wasn’t particularly quick.
Kim Yo Jong dismissed these criticisms as “an attempt to underestimate the readiness of the DPRK’s ballistic forces”.
Condemned by the UN
For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned North Korea’s actions over the weekend and called on Pyongyang to stop these “acts of provocation”, his spokesman said on Sunday.
“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the DPRK’s renewed launch of an ICBM,” Stéphane Dujarric said in a press release published on Sunday.